Do you support Torture?

one of the reasons so many people are dropping out of church, is the terrible image problem that Christians have. Check out this article from CNN

Religion and Torture

As a post-evangelical, post-conservative, I have had to face the fact that my "pro-life" views have been terribly inconsistant. I am personally against abortion, but I have had to re-examine my views on war, torture and capital punishment, and I have found myself moving toward a Quaker-Catholic or anabaptist view on all of these issues of human rights and respect for life.

In a recent book "UnChristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons documents the terrible image problem that evangelical Christians have in contemporary U.S. society. In my own opinion, it is because evangelicals are more "conservative" than they are "Christian" -- they have exchanged their faith for a cause. Below is a quote from the article on torture:

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More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.
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In my humble opinion, it no wonder that when normal, everyday people find out that someone is a "Christian" they run in the other direction. This is not persecution, this is simply "Christian" stupidity to put it crudely but honestly.

Click here to read the entire article on CNN.com

"Religulous" Review on Dan Kimball's blog

There is a great review of Bill Maher’s humorous new documentary film about religion, called “Religulous” on Dan Kimball’s blog. I would encourage Christians who are reformationally re-thinking Evangelical faith to go see the film and to read Kimballs review. Below is a brief portion of the the review.

vintage faith

“…Bill Maher is trying to show how "religion" in general is messed up and even very damaging (which it can be). He tries to make his point in a very, very humorous way. But it also was very predictable in what it covered. I have either listened to or read most of the arguments he made in the film, so what was in the film itself wasn't really new information...

…Although it was a humorous film, and although it raised great questions which need to be asked - it only showed a very one-sided perspective. Thus, to me it was a poor film journalistically as it misrepresented Christianity by only showing the extremes of it...

… A somewhat tender moment in the film actually was in the beginning when he was interviewing some attending a truck stop chapel. As he left he thanked them for "not being Christian, but being Christ-like". That was the best moment in the film to me. Maybe one day someone will make a movie called "Jesusology" or something and it will be a film done as professionally as this one in quality.”

MOVIE TRAILER

Tuesday night "God" party in Miami

This is a group of young, church-drop-out, 20-something single Christians gather on a back patio in Miami with a group of truth seeking young agnostics and new age seekers to discuss God, the scriptures, ethics and morality.

we had a good time last night ... conversations continued after our serious discussion about authenticity, integrity, and transparency. You have to listen closely to the background conversation between Ruth (the girl in the white sweater) and her friends.

"Jesus" in the eyes of people outside the church

This is a great Youtube video interviewing young people to ask them what they think about Jesus.