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Previous Posts
The Last Text Message
Today is my last day with Beliefnet, and my last day as the author of this blog. The Text Messages archives will remain live at this location, but posting will cease. If that sounds gloomy, it's an accurate reflection of my mind this afternoon. I've chosen to pursue new opportunities, but I'm n
posted 3:47:12pm Feb. 04, 2009 |
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Quitting Church: A Q&A with Julia Duin
Why do people stop going to church? This big question is the subject of Julia Duin's small book, Quitting Church: Why teh Faithful are Fleeing and What To Do About It. Duin is not a disinterested observer of the phenomenon of church-dropping; rather, she's a churchgoer who wants churches to work wel
posted 4:03:51pm Feb. 03, 2009 |
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Rob Stennett vs. Marilynne Robinson
I'm overjoyed that my good friend Rob Stennett has won the Award of Merit from Christianity Today for his novel The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher. (Here's CT's review of the book.) Stennett's hilarious book is about a real estate agent who joins a suburban church in order to reach the Christian h
posted 2:36:44pm Jan. 30, 2009 |
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What is spiritual restoration?
Slate asked for an essay on Ted Haggard's spiritual restoration. I'm okay with what I came up with for now, but the more I think about it, the more I think we need better thinking on what restoration looks like for very public, outspoken, influential men and women like Haggard:Most people who fail n
posted 9:00:56am Jan. 29, 2009 |
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It's Not TV; it's Ted TV
A blog might not be the best medium for an essay like this. But I want to offer some more considered thoughts on Ted Haggard and his HBO documentary; I hope this performs some kind of service in a story that I hope will end--in its public iteration--very soon. This was written as a stand-alone essay
posted 3:57:44am Jan. 28, 2009 |
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posted January 10, 2009 at 12:16 pm
There is, of course, another approach and that is that the God of the Old Testament was merely an insane despot of the period writ large.
It sort of reminds me of one evening when a Jewish atheist friend of mine was telling me about his ultra-conservative relatives and the hoops they had to jump through every Shabbas. I had to ask him, “Have you ever asked them why they worship that nutcase?”
posted January 11, 2009 at 7:14 am
In the old testament God was trying to cleaning up the people and stop them from their sinfull ways but that did not work so he had to send his only begotten son so that we would allways be able to get back into his grace.