An Unexpected Email 1/7
An introduction to the teachings of Frank Viola.

A former pastor of mine sent me an email outlining the teaching of Frank Viola.

His teachings are radical and contain claims that he has no authority to make. I replied to my former pastor and explained what I thought of this modern-day prophet.

I was not impressed. See for yourself.

Thick as a Brick 2/7
The Emotive Language of Frank Viola 

“I may make you feel, but I can’t make you think.”
Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull.

In his book Insurgence, Viola uses emotive language to make his audience feel but nothing to make them think.

It’s a dangerous way to approach religion.

Rudderless 3/7
Set adrift in a religious life raft. 

Viola has set his followers adrift in a rudderless life raft and instructed them to untether themselves from anything that might have given them some sense of religious stability.

All You Need Is Love 4/7
A Christmas Message

Frank Viola says that non-believers are incapable of experiencing and practicing agape love.

We’ll explore why he’s wrong and why his version of love is not what the World Needs Now.

Holier Than Thou 5/7
Taking piety to a whole new level.

Viola’s book “Pagan Christianity” teaches that nearly everything associated with church today… we are doing wrong. What’s more, he claims that things have been wrong for at least a thousand years.

Viola’s bunch has found a way to take “holier than thou” to a whole new level.

Moving the Goalpost 6/7
Being the right kind of christian
isn’t what it used to be.

” The problem with changing the rules of the game is that the meaning of the result is changed, too.”

Viola sees his brand of faith as superior to that of everyone else.

A Tale of Two Churches 1/2
Bethany and Trinity Lutheran

How can two churches who both label themselves as Lutheran be so different?

One talks about Gods love, the other focuses on human sinfulness and death.

Which would you choose?

A Tale of Two Churches 2/2
Bethany and Trinity Lutheran

How can two churches who both label themselves as Lutheran be so different?

One talks about Gods love, the other focuses on human sinfulness and death.

Which would you choose?

Becoming Like Jesus 1/5
What does it look like?

When Christians say that they are striving to become like Jesus, my crap detector goes nuts.

The question that must be asked is “which Jesus?”

Let’s take a look at what it would be like if christians strove to be like the historical 1st-century Jewish Jesus.

Thinking Like Jesus 2/5
Present tense? 

One christian website we’ve discovered teaches that “becoming like Jesus” has nothing to do with the historic Jesus of the Gospels.

How is that even possible?

“The key (to being like Jesus) isn’t with some hidden formula, secret knowledge, or mystical experience only available to the “truly spiritual”.

All that’s required is…

Becoming Like Jesus 3/5
The Roots are Bad

According to christian dogma, all humans have bad roots. It’s inescapable. We’ve inherited our sinful nature from Adam and Eve. Simply being born comes with the curse of eternal damnation.

It’s what every christian believes.

But  how how true is it?

Becoming Like Jesus 4/5
How true is christian thinking?

“All true thinking starts with what God says.”

“If you want your life to be transformed, then you must be willing to surrender your mind. Then, and only then, will you begin to think like Jesus.”

Before you surrender your mind, for heaven’s sake, read this blog. (Excuse the pun!)

Surrendering your Mind… 5/5
Is never a good thing.

A christian blogger tells his readers to surrender their minds to God.

Survivors of religious cults tell a different story.

What do they know that he doesn’t…
and you should?

An Imaginary Jesus
Will the real Jesus, please stand up.

“Some people say they love Jesus, but their Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. He is an imaginary Jesus that they invented in their own minds.” Abounding Joy

Jesus was inescapably and ineluctably a Jew living in first-century Palestine… and when we try to make him into a twenty-first-century American we distort everything he was and everything he stood for.
Dr. Bart Ehrman

Persecuted Persons
of Privilege Complex
 It’s a Pernicious kind of affliction.

Many people of privilege are unaware of the advantages they experience in society.

The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.

Critical Theory Explained
 What is it really?

Steve, the author of the christian website Abounding Joy has a history of misrepresenting his opponents.

Before we dive into what Steve has to say, let’s see what Critical Theory, actually stands for.

Critical Theory vs Christianity 1/3
Why Evangelicals are so afraid of
Critical Theory.

Like it or not, power concedes nothing without confrontation.

People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Nietzsche

Critical Theory vs Christianity 2/3
The Struggle to Maintain
White Male Privilege.

Is it possible that white, evangelicals resent those who might take their relatively privileged place in society?

Critical Theory vs Christianity 3/3
The Saga Continues

Is it possible that white evangelicals resent those who
are fighting for social equality?

What would cause you to change your view of the existence of God?

Toward the end of a 2019 debate between theist Richard Howe and atheist Dan Barker, each of them was asked what might cause them to change their beliefs.

Their answers might surprise you.

Is Secular Humanism
a Faith-based Religion?

Some theists claim that secular humanism is a religion.
How accurate is that claim?
And how much of Christianity is based on faith?

Preaching the Faith of Secular Humanism
Is Secular Humanism a religion?

A christian blogger claims that secular humanism is a religion.

How faith based is it really?

Freedom From Religion
in Public Education
Whose rights take priority?

Do public-school students have the right to be free from religious coercion in the classroom?

Do christian teachers have the right to share their religious beliefs in their classrooms?

Let’s find out!

What you see is what you get!
What is a Confessional Church?

Reading between the lines of
Trinity Lutheran’s mission statements.

Are they as welcoming as they want us to believe they are?

What’s Love Got to Do with It?
Part deux
What’s more important than LOVE?

Since LOVE is rarely mentioned in most church mission statement, what do they focus on instead?

What’s Sin Got to Do with It?
Part trois
Why is Sin more important than Love?

What exactly is sin? Why is it so important to christians and why do secularists reject it?

Love is a universal concept that applies to everyone, but sin is not universal. What does that mean for human morality?

Calling Right Wrong and Wrong Right
It’s complicated!

“If the indiscriminate slaughter of human beings can be called ‘good and righteous’ then all moral and ethical absolutes are destroyed.”

Authors Copan and Flannagan disagree.
We’ll see why!

The Problem with Pious Prevarication
How’s that for alliteration?

Atheist Raymond Bradley charges that the god of the bible commits, causes, commands, or condones violence in violation of objective moral principles.

How will authors Copan and Flannagan deal with Bradley’s logical quandaries?

Guilty of Not Being Innocent
Did the Canaanites deserve to be slaughtered?

According to Copan and Flannagan the answer is YES.

They base their argument on three
biblical justifications. 

But are they valid?

A Morally Questionable Escape Clause
The bible doesn’t condemn divinely
commanded violence… but we should.

“Anyone who condones, the deliberate and merciless slaughter of men, women, and children who are innocent of any serious wrongdoing, …should be regarded with abhorrence.”
Raymond Bradley

Would that include Copan and Flannagan?

The Historicity Of the Conquest of Canaan 
What if it never happened?

Since there is little or no archaeological evidence to support the historicity of the conquest of the Canaanites, will christians abandon the stories of divinely commanded genocide or will they abandon biblical inerrancy?

It’s a theological conundrum.

Biblical Contradictions 1/4
Batter Up! 

Answering the Music Man contributor Thomas Baker steps up to the plate to take a swing at Dan Barker’s list of biblical contradictions and discrepancies.

Will he hit a home run or strike out?

Biblical Inerrancy IN Peril 2/4
Biblical Contradictions

Thomas Baker appears willing to sacrifice biblical inerrancy to protect his belief in the existence of God.

Has atheist Dan Barker won the war of words?

Biblical Inerrancy 3/4
A Pious Fraud

In October of 1978, over 200 evangelicals gathered in Chicago to formulate a written statement defending the position of biblical inerrancy.

Turns out their defense was as errant as the book they were defending. 

Biblical Inerrancy 4/4
Protecting the Christian Narrative

In this blog we explore the possible reasons evangelicals feel the need to defend biblical inerrancy so fervently.

It’s more about power than protecting the integrity of the bible.

Atheism New and Old
by John D. Ferrer

Ferrer takes issue with Barker’s definition of atheism.

What John D. Ferrer doesn’t reveal about his personal beliefs, and why he’s reluctant to share them.

Ferrer claims to have the intellectual high ground over atheist Dan Barker, but a deeper dive into Ferrer’s actual beliefs tells an entirely different story.

Are Faith and Reason Compatible?
B. Kyle Keltz

The Bible tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Keltz writes that simply having “faith” is evidence enough to assume that God actually exists.

Wait, what?

How Christians Define Faith
A critique of Keltz’s
definition of faith

According to Keltz, Barker’s definition of faith is not how christian theologians understand faith. Which begs the obvious question. How do christians define faith?

We shall see!

The Philosophy of
Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas is famous for his 
Five Ways to Prove God’s Existence.

But do they?

Dan Barker and the Immoral God of the Bible Part 1

Steve Lewis PhD attempts to discredit renown atheist Dan Barker who says…

If you claim to be a good person, then the bible should embarrass you and disgust you. 

The Jealous God of the Bible

Lewis says that the God he believes in is incapable of experiencing jealousy.

But is that the God we find in the bible?

The Bible and Slavery Part 1

Lewis justifies slavery as found in the Old Testament.

How Antebellum Christians
Justified Slavery

“The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures.”

Richard Furman

Dismantling the Myth That Ancient Slavery Wasn’t That Bad. 

A conversation about the true nature of biblical slavery.

How Antebellum Christians
Justified Slavery Part 2

Antebellum pastors used the bible to justify slavery. Abolitionists also used the bible to oppose slavery.

Who was correct?

How Christians
Justify Acts of Genocide

Lewis continues his defense of the moral goodness of Yahweh as he justifies the divine violence of genocide as found in the Old Testament.

Warning! His defense will be shocking to people with a well-developed moral conscience.

Disassociating God from
Biblical Violence
Letting God Off the Hook for Genocide

Christian Gatekeepers attempt to Get God off the hook for the violence found in the Old Testament.  
It’s rather amusing to observe the mental and moral gymnastics some christians will perform in order to “get God off the hook.” 
But will it work?

Reevaluating the Destruction of the Canaanites
Letting God Off the Hook for Genocide.

Christian writer Charlie Trimm attempts to make sense of the violent passages found in the Old Testament.  

“If you believe that mass killing are always bad, then you can’t also believe that God is good.” Trimm’s ideas present some significant conundrums for believers.

Reevaluating the Violence in the Old Testament
Letting God Off the Hook for Genocide.

We’ll explore a christian school of thought that justifies mass killings in the Old Testament, by saying that the victims of Yahweh commanded genocide deserved to be annihilated.

Using New Testament Theology to
Justify Old Testament Genocide

As we have seen, christians will go to great lengths to justify stories of genocide in the Old Testament.
But we seriously question the sanity and compassion of those christians who use the New Testament to do so. 

1/3 The Full Armor of God

Bibleinfo.com discusses the articles of the Full Armor of God as found in Ephesians 6. In this blog we’ll explore the viability of the Belt of Truth and the Breastplate of Righteousness. 

2/3 The Full Armor of God

Bibleinfo.com discusses the articles of the Full Armor of God as found in Ephesians 6. In this blog we’ll explore the viability of the “shoes of the gospel of truth” and the “shield of faith”.

3/3 The Full Armor of God

Bibleinfo.com discusses the articles of the Full Armor of God as found in Ephesians 6. In this blog we’ll explore the viability of the “helmet of salvation” and the “sword of the spirit”.

Can an Evangelical Enjoy Meaningful Communication With An Atheist?
Or vice versa?

Christian author Dr. Elizabeth Youmans thinks so… at least that what she writes.

Dr. Youmans is an advocate for christian education, which she believes should be based entirely on the bible. Just how willing is she to have “meaningful communication” with someone who doesn’t believe in the bible? We’ll find out!  

It’s the Work of the Devil

Dr. Elizabeth Youmans believes that our English vocabulary is being “robbed and pillaged” by none other than the devil himself.

I contacted her to ask about what she had written, and to my great surprise she actually responded. Here is her reply…

“Meaningful Communications”
Is Not In the Bible

We put a secularistic spin on Dr. Elizabeth Youmans supernatural beliefs that the devil is hard at work changing the definitions of words.

A theology of War

Christian author Dr. Elizabeth Youmans is clearly at war, and she sees herself as a warrior. You might be surprised by who she considers her enemy and how she uses spiritual weapons of warfare against them.

Evangelical Hate Letter (1/3)

With all the talk of “God’s love” in their mission statement, the progressive congregation still receives hate mail from conservative christians. One such hate letter, taped to their front door, called them “false prophets”. 

We will examine both the validity and the absurdity of the message

1/9 Foundation of their Faith

2/9 The Trinity

3/9 God’s Relationship with Humanity

4/9 The Nature of Salvation

5/9 Humanity’s Relationship With God

6/9 Spiritual Practices

7/9 Purpose of Spiritual Community

8/9 Social Responsibility

9/9 LGBTQ Inclusion

The Lonely Church

An abandoned and forgotten church building that is marked for demolition gets new life with a progressive congregation. 

A Conversation With
Pastor Jenny

Jenny is a pastor of the progressive congregation that provided the happy ending to the Church on Marion Street. 

During our conversation Pastor Jenny talked frankly about her spiritual journey to reconcile her love of God, her lifelong devotion to ministry, and her identifying as being gay.