I spent one decade submerged into a subculture which I didn’t even realize existed at the time. As I found myself escaping the subculture, I realized I was living life only in the “Christian subculture“. Now, after spending a decade on the outside of the “Christian subculture“, I don’t consider myself bitter about the “Christian subculture” but alarmed about it!
Read the rest of this entry »
CHICAGO, May 15.—The Rev. W.W. Reynolds, pastor of the Brightwood Methodist Church of Indianapolis, recently wrote to Capt. Luke Colleran, Chief of the Chicago Detective Department, inquiring if the use of the bicycle among women had affected their morality in any perceptible manner. Although not offering statistics, Capt. Colleran’s reply deals with the subject in a positive manner.Read the rest of this entry »
It is totally possible to be raised within a grace-based system, and yet develop a performance-based sense of religion. Note that I don’t say “sense of faith,” because by definition performance is not faith. Faith is trust. And level of trust is not a measure of our performance, but of our relationship. God knows our difficulty with trusting, when so much in life is broken. He’s both capable and willing to earn our trust, much as we don’t deserve that grace. But that’s the point of grace.
Read the rest of this entry »
“Grin and Bear It” has been a popular idiom for generations. It means to not only endure but happily accept a bad situation because there is nothing you can do to improve it.
I would call that hopelessness.
Read the rest of this entry »
I left my small-town home because I was sick of the stupid social rules that develop in a compressed community environment. Oh, la, and then I became a Christian. My first church did not like me. I said exactly what I thought, and if something didn’t line up with the Bible, I wanted to know why they’d do that, when they’re supposed to be Christians and know this stuff.
Read the rest of this entry »
