I saw this!!!! The guy seems to be a prize jackass. He mocks our Communion wafers and calls the Eucharist, “swallow your leader,” grrrrrr.
But I’ve always believed that God has a sense of humor, and the fact that this raving looney’s son became an evangelical minister, despite his upbringing, is indicative that God must enjoy irony and some laughs. 🙂
If he really didn’t care, he wouldn’t be doing this. Something is nudging at him – of course, he’s responding negatively, but if God didn’t matter to him, he wouldn’t respond at all. Who knows what might happen?
Branford,
Well, he’s got at least one book out and I doubt that he does his public appearances and speaking engagements for free. He found a niche and is making some money from it. And getting more than his 15 minutes of fame.
I doubt that God has much to do with anything for this guy. From what I saw of him on TV, he purposely tries to offend and not to engage in rational discussion. The most sincere celebrity atheists do engage in debate and don’t close the door entirely on the possibility of a Supreme Intelligence.
I’m not sure why ABC gave this guy a platform in the first place. It’s now as though this is some huge group. And the secular principles that they claim to be espousing–mostly free speech and freedom of religious expression–haven’t been controversial in these parts for over 200 years. It is no news that we live in a pagan world. But, as Scripture tells us, it is up to God to judge the world, and for Christians to judge the Church.
Although the newsreader called the subject’s son “a fundamentalist minister”, if the church sign that the subject and his son posed in front of indicate the son’s ecclesiastical affiliation, I’ll have to object to the “fundamentalist” label. The Disciples of Christ are hardly an Asuza Street revival.
Jesus Christ died as much for this man’s sins as he did for mine. The fact that he won’t accept that fact does not diminish the truth thereof…it is simply a tragedy of literally cosmic proportions.
Disclaimer: The following information is presented to refute the moral equivalency proposed in the video, not to excuse or exonerate “Christian” mis-conduct.
Deaths Caused by Christianity
The Spanish Inquisition = 3-5 Thousand
The Crusades (combined) = 1-2 Million
Deaths Caused by Atheism (Communists)
People’s Republic of China (Mao) = 60-65 Million
United Soviet Socialist Republic (Stalin) = 20 Million
Cambodia (Pol Pot) = 2 Million
North Korea = 2 Million
There is no moral equivalency between “religious” caused deaths and atheist caused deaths. Much of what is attributed to Christianity was actually political activitiy, not religious.
This guy may be crazy as can be, but the fact that he can get such prominent publicity is a significant indication that western society continues on a fateful trajectory that’s becoming steadily more and more hostile to Christianity. And that troubling trend has far-reaching implications for all churches and all individual disciples of Jesus Christ, but especially for those of us who are a part of formerly “mainline” churches with a state church heritage.
I know I must often sound like a broken record here at T19, as I incessantly harp on the need to come to terms with our new post-Christendom social setting. But I keep calling attention to that issue because I’m firmly convinced that it’s the single most important reality that we must deal with in our time, i.e., the stark, grim reality that global north culture has decisively turned against Christianity. European culture used to favor the Christian faith and life; now it disfavors it, more and more openly, pervasively, and vehemently. That poses a HUGE challenge for those traditions, including Anglicanism, that remain addicted to the approval and support of soceity’s elite and seem trapped in an obsolete and counter-productive Christendom mindset that has gone the way of the Dodo Bird and the Brontosaurus. It’s high time to stop trying to appease Christinaity’s “cultured despisers” as Schliermacher did. That futile strategy of accommodation (to which Liberal Prostestantism has been so prone, but not liberals alone) has been an utter and dismal failure.
But the demise of Christianity’s favored status in the western world after a millenium and a half also offers, I believe, very exciting possibilities as well as great danger. For the first time in about 1500 years, we have a real chance of recovering the vitality and authenticity of the pre-Christendom Church during the Age of the Martyrs. So I for one am not bemoaning the cultural sea change, nor am I stuck in grief, mouring the social privileges and status we’ve finally lost. The early church did very well during the era of persecution, as do many of our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world today in places like China or Sudan.
We can not only survive but thrive in this scary new post-Christendom world. IF (and only if) we’re as wsilling to pay the high price as they were (and are).
I saw this!!!! The guy seems to be a prize jackass. He mocks our Communion wafers and calls the Eucharist, “swallow your leader,” grrrrrr.
But I’ve always believed that God has a sense of humor, and the fact that this raving looney’s son became an evangelical minister, despite his upbringing, is indicative that God must enjoy irony and some laughs. 🙂
If he really didn’t care, he wouldn’t be doing this. Something is nudging at him – of course, he’s responding negatively, but if God didn’t matter to him, he wouldn’t respond at all. Who knows what might happen?
Branford,
Well, he’s got at least one book out and I doubt that he does his public appearances and speaking engagements for free. He found a niche and is making some money from it. And getting more than his 15 minutes of fame.
I doubt that God has much to do with anything for this guy. From what I saw of him on TV, he purposely tries to offend and not to engage in rational discussion. The most sincere celebrity atheists do engage in debate and don’t close the door entirely on the possibility of a Supreme Intelligence.
ROFL. Umm…I think it may take a little more than a blowdryer…However he is welcome to try!
Hair dryer. Hot air. Hmmm…
Is it possible these folks have irony-poor blood?
I’m not sure why ABC gave this guy a platform in the first place. It’s now as though this is some huge group. And the secular principles that they claim to be espousing–mostly free speech and freedom of religious expression–haven’t been controversial in these parts for over 200 years. It is no news that we live in a pagan world. But, as Scripture tells us, it is up to God to judge the world, and for Christians to judge the Church.
Although the newsreader called the subject’s son “a fundamentalist minister”, if the church sign that the subject and his son posed in front of indicate the son’s ecclesiastical affiliation, I’ll have to object to the “fundamentalist” label. The Disciples of Christ are hardly an Asuza Street revival.
Jesus Christ died as much for this man’s sins as he did for mine. The fact that he won’t accept that fact does not diminish the truth thereof…it is simply a tragedy of literally cosmic proportions.
Disclaimer: The following information is presented to refute the moral equivalency proposed in the video, not to excuse or exonerate “Christian” mis-conduct.
Deaths Caused by Christianity
The Spanish Inquisition = 3-5 Thousand
The Crusades (combined) = 1-2 Million
Deaths Caused by Atheism (Communists)
People’s Republic of China (Mao) = 60-65 Million
United Soviet Socialist Republic (Stalin) = 20 Million
Cambodia (Pol Pot) = 2 Million
North Korea = 2 Million
There is no moral equivalency between “religious” caused deaths and atheist caused deaths. Much of what is attributed to Christianity was actually political activitiy, not religious.
This guy may be crazy as can be, but the fact that he can get such prominent publicity is a significant indication that western society continues on a fateful trajectory that’s becoming steadily more and more hostile to Christianity. And that troubling trend has far-reaching implications for all churches and all individual disciples of Jesus Christ, but especially for those of us who are a part of formerly “mainline” churches with a state church heritage.
I know I must often sound like a broken record here at T19, as I incessantly harp on the need to come to terms with our new post-Christendom social setting. But I keep calling attention to that issue because I’m firmly convinced that it’s the single most important reality that we must deal with in our time, i.e., the stark, grim reality that global north culture has decisively turned against Christianity. European culture used to favor the Christian faith and life; now it disfavors it, more and more openly, pervasively, and vehemently. That poses a HUGE challenge for those traditions, including Anglicanism, that remain addicted to the approval and support of soceity’s elite and seem trapped in an obsolete and counter-productive Christendom mindset that has gone the way of the Dodo Bird and the Brontosaurus. It’s high time to stop trying to appease Christinaity’s “cultured despisers” as Schliermacher did. That futile strategy of accommodation (to which Liberal Prostestantism has been so prone, but not liberals alone) has been an utter and dismal failure.
But the demise of Christianity’s favored status in the western world after a millenium and a half also offers, I believe, very exciting possibilities as well as great danger. For the first time in about 1500 years, we have a real chance of recovering the vitality and authenticity of the pre-Christendom Church during the Age of the Martyrs. So I for one am not bemoaning the cultural sea change, nor am I stuck in grief, mouring the social privileges and status we’ve finally lost. The early church did very well during the era of persecution, as do many of our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world today in places like China or Sudan.
We can not only survive but thrive in this scary new post-Christendom world. IF (and only if) we’re as wsilling to pay the high price as they were (and are).
“[i]Blessed are you when men persecute you…[/i]”
David Handy+