religion

Chris Knight's avatar

Harold Camping is at it again. The on-air Christian evangelist who predicted that this past May 21st would herald the Rapture and the return of Jesus Christ (uhhhh, it didn’t happen) is now saying that the Rapture will be on October 21st instead.

As for that failed May prognostication, here’s what Camping’s outfit has said…

What really happened this past May 21st? What really happened is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God’s salvation program would be finished on that day. For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God’s final judgment. To accomplish this goal God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phrases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear

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Found a very intriguing and insightful post on Mary DeMuth‘s blog. Titled “Spiritual Abuse: 10 Ways to Spot It”, DeMuth writes about her experiences with “churches and ministries that bully”.

Here are some of the indicators of spiritual abuse, in whatever form it might take…

– Have a distorted view of respect. They forget the simple adage that respect is earned, not granted. Abusive leaders demand respect without having earned it by good, honest living.

– Demand allegiance as proof of the follower’s allegiance to Christ. It’s either his/her way or no way. And if a follower deviates, he is guilty of deviating from Jesus.

– Use exclusive language. “We’re the only ministry really following Jesus.” “We have all the right theology.” Believe their way of doing things, thinking theologically, or handling ministry and church is the only correct way. Everyone else is wrong, misguided, or stupidly naive.

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Chris Knight's avatar

This photo is so fascinating, and I can’t quite articulate why. Pope Bendict XVI, using an iPad 2 and quite obviously on Twitter, to “tweet” a brief message to inaugurate the Vatican’s official news site.

And what was the Holy Father’s first message in 140 characters or less?

“Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI”

The Catholic Church was the primary repository of knowledge and learning in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire on through to the Renaissance. To have gone from a collection of scrolls and parchments, to seeing this photo of its leader communicating to the world with a piece of high-tech silicon and glass…

As I said: “fascinating”!

(But I’m also wondering if His Holiness might use his snazzy new gizmo for the occasional game of Angry Birds. Not that ...

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…and I can’t wait to finally load up on plasmids!

Huh? What’s that?! You mean… it’s not THAT Rapture, but instead the other kind?!?!?

humph…

Dear Mr. Harold Camping: “Would you kindly…” stop with this nonsense? We are told in the Bible that no one but the Father in Heaven knows when the end of days will come. This shouldn’t be anything we’re meant to be concerned with anyway. In his epistles to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul taught that we are to occupy with the business of living for Christ, and not be swept up in this sort of fear-mongering.

Yes, I look forward also to the return of our Lord and Savior. And I do believe that He is coming again. How? Because I believe that He came the first time. The path that I took to my faith in Christ, it’s not one I ...

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Good friend Deborah Taylor (who was previously known as Deborah Wilson 🙂 and her husband Dennie found this uproariously funny video and I just had to share it with y’all…

Y’know, Benny Hinn is known for pulling off mind tricks. And didn’t he once claim he could keep people from dying, just like Darth Plagueis was reputed to be capable of? Maybe there’s something to this….

I’m only wondering what should Hinn’s Sith title be. “Darth Pantene” perhaps?...

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This is an Orthodox chapel near the city of Chiatura in the former Soviet state of Georgia…

Oh yes, you can go in… but first you have the climb a rickety, rusty metal ladder up a 130-feet tall column of rock. The building atop the column was constructed sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries and is thought to have at first been a pagan temple (the rock being ummmm… symbolic of “fertility”, parse that as you will).

The Orthodox churches credit their founding to the apostle Andrew, who journeyed to the region following the ascension of Christ. With the conversion of the pagans, the temple became a Christian chapel. Today it is being restored and is even the home of an Orthodox priest.

My brain feels staggered just looking at the photo of this thing. Just… wow.

Click here to learn more about the chapel at Chiatura, ...

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READER ADVISORY: This, the fifth installment of an ongoing series exploring what I have experienced and learned from living with bipolar disorder, contains an account of an extremely graphic nature. My writing about it here marks the first time that I have revealed in public an incident, the nature of which I pray would never happen to anyone. This advisory is not to “warn away” anyone from reading it at all. In fact, it is my desire that you would read it. I only ask for two things: that you, Dear Reader, will bear in mind that I am writing about this for the first time because it marks a very terrible period in my life that, I must give credit to God for bringing me through. And that the account itself is not the reason at all for this chapter of Being Bipolar. The real heartmeat of this installment
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“No Christian theology can claim to speak the last word about God and God’s relation to human beings and the world. Every theology is at best a limited, fallible, provisional attempt to speak of the living God of scripture whose truth, justice, and compassion are beyond the very highest and best we can imagine.”

— Shirley C. Guthrie

That quote was discovered by by a good friend today, and I just had to post it here. If for no other reason than because too many people have the audacity to believe that they possess “the one true church” or “the only way” to be a “real” Christian… when they forget that their utmost wisdom is in fact far less than foolishness to God.

(Hat tip to Crystal Risbon for a great find 🙂...

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Most people believe that the Constitution prohibits an establishment of religion.

It does. But that hasn’t stopped the United States from having an official state religion.

Not only that, but in fact it has two of them…

The Republican Party and the Democrat Party.

(Just something that crossed my mind today, as we swap out one faith for another in the halls of the House of Representatives. As has happened before and will certainly happen many times again…)...

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