IS HE OR ISN’T HE? OBAMA’S EVANGELICAL QUESTION
Interesting to follow this from a distance. These words made me ponder deeper how we use labels (and the limits it brings) … “It would have been easier for the senator-cum-president to answer, simply, “Yes,” to the evangelical question.
But for Obama, as for many of us, faith is complicated, messy, a work in progress.
And, if we’re honest about it, the standard labels just don’t fit.”
Shipshape spirituality (HT: Maggi Dawn)
I’m carrying this to bed with me tonight … “How do we deal with our fear? How do we deal with other people’s anger – and our own? How do we connect at the deepest level with people but, at the same time, maintain the space which makes ministry possible?”
Faith and Doubt
My message title this coming sunday is “When in doubt …”, so these words are helpful — > “Central to faith (as opposed to certainty) is relationship. When we face doubts because the odds are against us we “bank” on knowing God, on our relationship with God, and we trust God.”
IS ALL DOUBT SIN?
Nice picture … and John Fyre chips in!
The Ancient Evangelical Future Call Conference: A Few Reflections from a Participant, by David E. Fitch
Interesting question: “Is modernity mainly the problem of White Evangelicals? In that case could the AEF Call have spoken in a language that made sense to anyone else other than White Evangelicals? “ I suppose that will have to include all those non-white Evangelicals who devour white Evangelical thinking (sometimes unthinkingly or with a sense of inferiority?). Hmm… food for my own thought.
Rex Miller’s Favorite Quotations
Here’s my favorites of his favorites 🙂
• Gandhi: “We must become the change we wish to see.”
• Henri Nouwen: “Hope focuses on the Giver not the gift.”
• Rev. William Sloane Coffin: “Faith doesn’t give certainty it gives you the ability to deal with uncertainty.”
• Johnny Cash: “You can only get so far with rage, you need strategy.”
cool to see the J Cash quotes, the Man in Black is certainly an interesting spokesman for God
DB, I saw an authorized biography of Johnny CasH in Bangsar MPH yesterday .. you might wanna grab a copy when you come back 🙂
Thanks for the comments about Obama and the ‘Is he or isn’t he?’ question. I think that ultimately what makes my soul rebel is the constant pressure to sign up to other people’s orthodoxies. Which tends to mean signing up to other people’s over-simplifications and losing one’s freedom of response as well