The Gaping Chasm of Suicide

By Jeremy Myers

Till He Comes Living Life on Mission

"No Christian has really lived until they have stared into the glowing eyes of atheism, staggered along the gaping chasm of suicide, and camped near the smoking gates of hell. But that’s where I’ve been for about six months.

And I’m not on a sightseeing tour. I’m not taking pictures. I’m not buying trinkets to take home and put on my bookshelf and show off to my Christian friends. No, I’m here for life.

Even if I do find my way back out of this pit, and get back home with some souvenirs, I don’t have many Christian friends left to show them to. When I began this descent into depression, despair, and doubt, those that didn’t shoot at me while I fell, simply abandoned me. No calls. No e-mails. No letters. Even when I cried out for help, the most frequent response (if I got any response at all) was, 'I’ll be praying for you.'”

~ ~ ~

"But as I looked at these churches, I began to get quite alarmed. Despite all their talk about missions and evangelism, not a single one of the churches I was looking at were doing much to reach, love, and serve those in their own communities that needed Jesus most. Oh sure, they courted the businessmen, the lawyers, and the doctors, and mail checks to the missionaries in Nigeria, and send a team to build a medical clinic in Bolivia. They had groups that served down at the local soup kitchen, and a few radical souls who hand out tracts on the street corners downtown. But as I looked around these churches, there were no poor, no homeless, no prostitutes, no atheists, no drug addicts. There definitely weren’t any democrats. Apparently, such people could be prayed for, but were not allowed to actually attend church."

~ ~ ~

"So I began to change how I prayed. And that was the biggest mistake of my life.

I prayed that God would help me love people that most churches loved to hate. Democrats, pornographers, and abortion doctors. I prayed that God would help me reach people that most Christians saw as unreachable. Homosexuals, prostitutes, strippers, and atheists. I prayed that God would help me understand what people are going through when they turn to drugs, alcohol, suicide, and crime as a way to solve or forget their problems.

In hindsight, I wish these were prayers God had said “No” to."

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Jesus for reals

Jesus for reals

By Bonar Crump

Let me just say this right up front—if you cannot imagine a Jesus that was charismatic, lively, likeable, engaging, and smart COUPLED WITH sometimes agitated, melancholy, sorrowful, angry, woeful, and frustrated then you don’t have a relationship with the REAL Jesus. If your image of Jesus is wholly beatific then you don’t understand what’s going on in the Gospels. 

One more thing before I blow into full rant is that in order to have a relationship with someone you’ve never physically met you have to contemplate, meditate on, and understand the information that they have put forth. For instance, in order to relate to C.S. Lewis one must read, contemplate, and contextualize his ideas. That’s the only way to claim a relationship with a dead person. Likewise, if you want to get to know someone that you will probably never meet like Anne Lamott you have to discover her personality, humor, and views of truth through the study, contemplation, and appreciation of her writings. 

Why, oh why, does the RELIGION of Christianity place prerequisites on each and every access point to Jesus? Don’t answer that. It’s rhetorical. If you feel the sudden kneejerk reaction to answer that question you aren’t going to get what I have to say so save us both some time and stop reading now.

Why can't we just let Jesus be Jesus?

by Martha Woodroof
The Washington Post: On Faith

"I cannot imagine a better role model [than Jesus] for a person of faith; for anyone who also tries to live a relationship with God, rather than just talk about it.

If I'm so into Jesus, why am I not a Christian?

Because the magical deification stories seem both silly and unnecessary - beginning with Jesus being the hybrid son of Mary and God. Could someone please explain to me what, exactly, that's about? And why it's essential to believe it in order to follow Jesus?

It seems to me we owe God more respect than to pussyfoot around with the truth, even if that pussyfooting gives us communal or personal comfort. As I see it, if my relationship with God cannot be based on what I've experienced and so know is true, then - pardon the expression - but to hell with it."

~ ~ ~

"What I want so badly is for all persons of faith to recognize the irrelevance of the magic of Jesus in the face of the mission of Jesus. I want us to stop worrying about what we say about Jesus, and start worrying about how we can most effectively follow his example. Therein, to me, lies the true power of the guy who is, arguably, western history's most fully-realized person of faith."

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Conversions: From Senior Pastor to Church Dropout

by Jason Boyett
Beliefnet

Today's conversion story comes from Jeremy Myers. A former seminary graduate and conservative pastor, Jeremy "de-converted" from traditional Christianity. Though still a follower of Christ, he has left the institutional Church altogether. And blogging played a fairly big role in that departure...

During the years in seminary, I began to notice an alarming trend in myself, my professors, my fellow students, and in the seminary alumni I worked with at the non-profit organization: We were all so mean. We each thought that we had the infallible truth, and anyone who disagreed with us was a heretic and a tool of the devil. This attitude pervaded even minor disagreements, such as whether a church could dim the lights and use candles in their service or not. 

 ~ ~ ~

Within a month of the fateful blog post ["The Heretic in Me"], I was asked to resign from my job at the non-profit organization. Not because I said or did anything contrary to their doctrinal statement or had any employee misconduct, but because I was reading books and thinking about ideas that the CEO of the organization considered heretical. Many of my church friends called or wrote to try to "bring me back into the fold" when in reality, I hadn't left yet.

~ ~ ~

Be encouraged. Everywhere I look, people are becoming dissatisfied with church and traditional thinking about the place of Christians in the world. Whenever I encounter someone like this, I tell them that they have been given a gift. Though it feels like they are being ripped away from all they know about God and what He wants us to do, the end result will be a relationship with Him that does not depend on an approved list of behaviors and beliefs. Instead, they can simply enjoy a relationship with God just as they would any other person.

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Your Take: Does the Bible condemn homosexuality?

Posted by: The Editors - CNN Belief Blog
http://tinyurl.com/6jhwob7

There were thousands of comments on Thursday's Belief Blog post arguing that the Bible condemns homosexuality, a response to another guest post arguing that the Bible is much more ambiguous on homosexuality than previously thought.

Most of the comments appear to doubt the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality - or challenge the wisdom looking to the Bible for guidance on such matters. And, as usual, we're struck by all the atheist comments. They seem to far outnumber believers' comments. [...]

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