Are You Thoughtful? - Conversations and Reflection Are You Thoughtful? - Conversations and Reflection Bible study should be timely. It should stimulate our thoughts about Christian values and how they relate to today's world. TheThoughtfulChristian.com is a Web-based resource center designed to attract and keep participants' attention. Articles
New This Week - "Grieving Well"
2008-05-29 22:18:00 New Adult StudyGrieving Well Last Week 's Top FiveWhat's in Your Water Bottle? Christian Pilgrimage 2008 Presbyterian General Assembly Study Pack Prosperity Gospel: Will Jesus Make You Rich? Where Is God When Disaster Strikes? Visit us again next week for our new youth study titled "'Lord, Make Me . . . ': Following St. Francis" and our new adult study "Desert Fathers and Mothers."Click on any of the links above to be redirected to the site for more information.
New This Week - "What's in Your Water Bottle?" and "Christian Pilgrimage"
2008-05-23 22:48:00 New Youth StudyWhat's in Your Water Bottle ? New Adult StudyChristian Pilgrimage Last Week 's Top Five2008 Presbyterian General Assembly Study Pack Prosperity Gospel: Will Jesus Make You Rich? Where Is God When Disaster Strikes? Rediscovering Paul Study Pack: Understanding the Controversial Apostle U.S. Government vs. Fundamentalist Mormons: What?s Best for the Children? Visit us again next week for our new adult study titled "Grieving Well."Click on any of the links above to be redirected to the site for more information.
May Highlights from TheThoughtfulChristian.com
2008-05-16 17:04:00 May 2008Dear Thoughtful Christians,Besides finding out what Hilary or Obama had for breakfast and the significance of that, we are terribly saddened to watch news reports of the overwhelming loss of life from natural disasters this past week in Asia. Many of us may be fortunate to never have experienced such incredible, massive death of family members and community. Our hearts go out to so many people we do not know, yet are children loved by God. Surely God?s heart is breaking as well.Are you wishing the elections were over already? In case your group is still interested in exploring issues of faith and politics, we will be expanding the Religion and Politics Study Pack in time for the fall elections. The additional studies will include ?How Should Christians Vote?? as well as one that will examine the state of our democracy and one that will address just what is meant by separation of church and state. We also hope to have a couple more reflections from presidential hopefuls.Thank... More About: Newsletter , Highlights
New This Week - "Prosperity Gospel: Will Jesus Make You Rich?" and "2008 Pr
2008-05-16 17:03:00 New Adult StudyProsperity Gospel : Will Jesus Make You Rich ? New Adult Study Pack2008 Presbyterian General Assembly Study Pack Special In The News Staff PickWe are terribly saddened to watch news reports of the overwhelming loss of life from natural disasters this past week in Asia. Our hearts go out to so many people we do not know, yet are children loved by God. Surely God?s heart is breaking as well. Below is a list of resources that you as leaders can use within your ministry settings to help folks find answers to the many questions that have been raised over the last week.Where Is God When Disaster Strikes?Global Climate Change: Facts and SolutionsFilm: An Inconvenient Truth: Ethical ChallengesFilm: An Inconvenient Truth: Facts about Global WarmingLast Week 's Top FiveRediscovering Paul Study Pack: Understanding the Controversial ApostleU.S. Government vs. Fundamentalist Mormons: What?s Best for the Children?Step Away from the Computer: Using Technology WiselyPaul and the Role o...
New This Week - "Rediscovering Paul Study Pack: Understanding the Controver
2008-05-09 22:46:00 New Youth Study Step Away from the Computer: Using Technology Wisely New Adult Study Pack Rediscovering Paul Study Pack: Understanding the Controversial Apostle 1. ?Paul: His Life and Thought,? by Michael Cosby. This three-session study provides a summary of who Paul was, his conversion experience, and some of the main beliefs he had about who Christ was and how Christians should live.2. ?Paul?s Journeys,? by David Otto. This three-session study takes participants on a tour of Paul?s three missionary journeys. What he saw and what he did on each of the journeys will be discussed.3. ?Paul and the Role of Women in the Church,? by Sandra Hack Polaski. This two-session study examines Paul?s statements and actions in order to conclude just what Paul really thought about women and their role in the churchStaff PickWhere Is God When Disaster Strikes? Last Week 's Top FiveU.S. Government vs. Fundamentalist Mormons: What?s Best for the Children? Compassion as a Spiritual Discipline What Do...
Prophetic Preaching vs. Political Sound Bites
2008-05-07 16:43:00 In 1972, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright became pastor of an 87-member church, Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago. Three and half decades later its membership has grown to over six thousand, making it the largest church in the United Church of Christ denomination. In addition to Sunday services of worship, Trinity United Church of Christ supports numerous ministries in the poor neighborhood that surrounds it: tutoring for kids, programs for women?s health, ministry to people with HIV/AIDS, providing food for the poor, prison ministry, a senior citizens home and others. From the beginning of his ministry Reverend Wright was determined that the Church at worship would also be the Church that served the least of the brothers and sisters in the world that surrounds it. That support reaches beyond its immediate neighborhood, a fact made clear by its giving over $3.7 million the broader UCC mission and ministry funds from 2003 to 2007. Notably the United Church of Christ is now stan... More About: Political , Barack Obama , In the News , Sound , Preaching
Rev. Wright Gets the Main Point Wrong
2008-05-03 03:33:00 Rev. Jeremiah Wright continued to explain himself this week at the National Press Club. He gave a learned address on the prophetic ministry of the black church. He then answered questions about the controversial sound bites that have been looped in the press. His answers were, I think, plausible explanations of what he was and still is arguing.When he quoted others saying that America's "chickens had come home to roost" on September 11, he meant that the U.S. government had committed terrorist acts around the world and on its citizens over its long history, and now terrorist acts were in turn committed on the United States.When he said that the AIDS virus might be have been created by the U.S. government and might have been used on American citizens, he cited the Tuskegee syphilis experiments as precedent.And when he said that God damns America, he meant that God condemns the government of the United States for its past unrepented-of bad actions, including slavery.Each of these poi... More About: Main , Point , Wrong , The Main
The gamble of nationalism
2008-05-01 21:20:00 Gambling has never tempted me. The thought of losing money for the slim chance of winning a greater amount fills me with dread, rather than anticipation.I feel the same way about nationalism, because its effects are also unpredictable. It can lead to stirring music, family picnics and fireworks displays or genocide and mass expulsions ? sometimes both.After the United States affirmed Kosovo ?s declaration of independence and I saw the Serb hooligans subsequently trashing the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last month, my first thought was, ?Well, at least they?re not attacking defenseless civilians this time.? I then reflected that I have never known nationalism to make anyone kinder, more just or compassionate. Indeed, far more examples exist of nationalism leading to human rights abuses. But I also wondered what separated the nationalism of Kosovar Albanians from the nationalism of the Serbs, or the nationalism of the Croats who had also committed atrocities for patriotic reasons during t... More About: In the News , Gamble , Nationalism
New This Week - "U.S. Government vs. Fundamentalist Mormons: What?s Best fo
2008-05-01 21:04:00 New Adult StudyBook: Blood Done Sign My NameNew In the NewsU.S. Government vs. Fundamentalist Mormons : What?s Best for the Children?Staff Special In the News PickThis week marks the launch of the ninth release from the "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise. Use these studies with your youth and adult classes to explore questions like, What is it about "Grand Theft Auto" games that appeals to gamers? or How should Christians respond to a game like this?Xbox Ethics: Is It All Just a Game?Children and Video Games: What's the Problem?Last Week 's Top FiveCompassion as a Spiritual Discipline"Jeremiah Wright and Black Prophetic Preaching," by Debra J. MumfordWhat Does the Lord Require?Tibet and the OlympicsGlobal Climate Change: Facts and Solutions"Rediscovering Paul: Understanding the Controversial Apostle Study Pack" Is Now Ready for Preorder and Will Go Live on May 71. ?Paul: His Life and Thought,? by Michael Cosby. This three-session study provides a summary of who Paul was, his co...
April Highlights from TheThoughtfulChristian.com
2008-04-23 15:47:00 Dear Thoughtful Christians,We hope you are enjoying these weeks of mild weather before the hot summer begins! Many of you have told us how much you like using the study packs released before your summer programs begin. This year we have prepared two new study packs for you in addition to others still available. Figures in the Old Testament consists of six one-session studies on key people in the Old Testament by author Gary Light. (By the way, author Ellsworth Kalas is writing a similar study pack for the New Testament to be released in late summer.) Rediscovering Paul: Understanding the Controversial Apostle will be released May 7, consisting of three studies focusing on Paul?s life, his thoughts, his journeys, and his understanding of the role of women in church. It is ready for preordering, so you?ll receive it the minute it becomes available.In addition, for Presbyterians, we are happy to partner with the Office of General Assembly this year to produce the official Bible study f... More About: April , Newsletter , Highlights
"Jeremiah Wright and Black Prophetic Preaching," by Debra J. Mumford
2008-04-10 17:14:00 In March 2008, sermon snippets of Barack Obama ?s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright , dominated news headlines. In these snippets of his sermons, Wright is heard giving harsh criticism of the United States? foreign policy and treatment of some of its citizens.Whether or not one agrees with Wright, it is helpful to have more background about the black prophetic preaching tradition from which he comes. It is this tradition that has spiritually and emotionally supported and sustained many African Americans since the days of slavery.In this essay, author and homiletics scholar Debra Mumford provides Thoughtful Christian readers a brief background of the long tradition of African American prophetic preaching and encourages Christians not to be misled by how some of the media are choosing to portray a black prophetic preacher.Debra J. Mumford is Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.For purchase information, click here. More About: In the News , Black , Preaching
Barack Obama's Church Home
2008-04-09 17:39:00 Around the age of eight, I began making up serial stories in my head when I was bored. Thus, I rarely got past the first two minutes of any sermon before exiting to fantasyland. I do remember one sermon, however, because I was sitting next to my father and saw him getting upset. The pastor was talking about bullies in his childhood who would twist the arms of weaker boys and make them cry "uncle." He then said the U.S. needed to do that to Vietnam?at which point, my father told my siblings and me to stay put and left the sanctuary. The post-sermon hymn was "Onward Christian Soldiers." My mother and several other choir members did not stand to sing it. We attended the Presbyterian Church in town for a while.I bring this up because of the furor created by Barack Obama 's refusal to disavow his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright after sound bytes of him preaching "God Damn America" replayed endlessly in the media. I write these words the morning after I watched 60 Minutes in... More About: In the News , Home
Collective punishment in Gaza--and Dallas?
2008-03-14 19:38:00 At the end of January, Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery wrote a column about Gaza ns breaching the wall between the Palestinian and Egyptian sections of Rafah, comparing it to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He described events preceding it, Israel preventing food, medicines, and fuel from entering Gaza in reprisal for Palestinian militants firing Qassam rockets into Israel. Noting that he had earlier written a satirical article describing the situation in Gaza as a "scientific experiment" designed to find out how long one could impose hellish measures on a civilian population before they surrender, he wrote, "It has been said before that it is dangerous to write satire in our country?too often the satire becomes reality."Avnery's article got me thinking. What if the citizens of Dallas , which has a population roughly similar to that of the Gaza Strip, voted the Republic of Texas?a group that wants Texas to secede from the U.S.?into city office? Because of group's violent history, the... More About: In the News , Punishment , Collective
Catholic Lose Big, Hold Steady
2008-03-14 19:01:00 On the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 3The Roman Catholic Church has been the largest denomination in the United States for five generations. Catholics make up about a quarter of the population. Yet the Catholic Church shows huge losses over a lifetime in the new Pew survey. Asking adults what religion they are now, and what they claimed as a child, the RCs show a 24% loss. Yet they remain nearly a quarter of the population. How is that possible?Part of the answer is conversion. While 7.5% of the population reports that they once were Catholics but now are not, another 2.9% of the population made the shift the other way, making up almost 40% of the loss.The other part of the answer is immigration. Almost half of all immigrants are Catholic. Immigrants make up nearly a quarter of the Catholic membership in this country - double the percentage of Americans who are foreign-born.The Pew survey does not tell us when the exiting Catholics departed. It seems likely to me that... More About: In the News , Hold
Two nations in one territory
2008-02-27 23:21:00 In mid-December, I got a mailing from a Latin American newslist announcing that the Lakota Nation was unilaterally withdrawing from its thirty-three treaties with the U.S. government"We are no longer citizens of the United States and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," Indian rights activist Russell Means proclaimed at a December 20 news conference in Washington DC.The Lakota would not force non-Lakota inhabitants to move from their territory, but the new country would issue its own passports and driving licenses to Lakota living in the region. They would not have to pay taxes if they renounced their U.S. citizenship.The group at the press conference cited the repeated violations of treaties their nation made with the U.S. as a reason for withdrawal. They also offered these sobering statistics:€ Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than forty-four years€The Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the U.S. average.... More About: Nations , Territory
End of the Spear
2007-12-20 19:40:00 "The End of the Spear" is a movie of the true story of a fierce and suspicious tribe who martyr the first missionaries who come to them, only to be won over to Christ in the end. The heart of the evangelical struggle is convincing the tribe that God does not want them to live by the code of vengeance that is destroying them. The famous story behind this film is of Nate Saint and four other missionary men making contact with a band of Waodani in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956. The men were speared to death. The rest of the missionaries, including the widows and children of the martyrs, continued to try to reach the Waodani. Eventually they broke through and won them over with Christ's love. Steve Saint, son of Nate, came back as an adult to establish a friendship with his father's killers. Eventually Steve and his family moved back from the United States to live with the Waodani as family. The "end of the spear" is not only how the martyrs died, but ending the way of spearin...
Vilifying Ten Thousand Villages
2007-12-19 22:34:00 A non-Mennonite friend recently e-mailed me her concern about an article in the Jewish paper based in her region of New Jersey that vilified a recently-opened Ten Thousand Villages store, and by extension, Mennonite Central Committee.The news did not upset me as much as it would have twelve years ago. In 1995, when I began working in the West Bank with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and speaking about what I witnessed there, one American Jew told me dismissively, "Quakers and Mennonites have always been anti-Semitic."This remark pierced my heart. Herald Press had recently published my book, We Are the Pharisees, which detailed a thousand years of murderous treatment of Jews by Christians and examined how Christians had used Jesus" teachings on the Pharisees to justify pogroms and genocide. I really wanted Jews to think well of me.Today, I have many more Jewish friends and family members than I had in 1995 - largely because of my work in the West Bank - and thus feel less upset when ... More About: Ages
Links for 2007-11-07 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-08 07:00:00 World Neighbors Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams. More About: Links
The Late Great Planet Earth
2007-11-07 23:07:00 Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth was popular among my Sunday school teachers in the church where I grew up. Rather than fearing the apocalypse they told me would happen in my lifetime, I remember thinking the Second Coming would be pretty cool, because I really wanted some answers from That Guy (whose affection for me I truly felt every time I sang "Jesus loves me.") Later, when I read Lindsey's book, (which was before I understood how he abused prophetic texts) I remember feeling disappointed. Even as a child, I could see that pointing to every recent disaster as a sign of impending Judgment Day was flawed logic. I had read about Krakatoa and Pompeii. I knew that widespread famine, wars, and plagues had afflicted human beings for centuries and the world had not ended after these calamities. I got onto this train of thought recently after I got a mailing from a representative of the Israeli settlers in Hebron, who sees Condoleezza Rice's twilight push for a ... More About: Planet Earth
Links for 2007-11-05 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-06 07:00:00 With, For and By Youth News and Celebration of Youth Ministry in the Diocese of Southern Virginia bear witness to the love of God in this world occasional reflections, meditations, observations from my place in the world Ministerblog.net A Community for Dialogue on Spiritual Formation for ministers. More About: Links
Links for 2007-10-29 [del.icio.us]
2007-10-30 06:00:00 Jesus Creed This blogger is exploring the significance of Jesus and the Orthodox Faith for the 21st Century. More About: Links
Links for 2007-10-23 [del.icio.us]
2007-10-24 07:00:00 TiffBits Personal reflections by a pastor on family, friends and faith. The Other Jesus Greg Garrett is the author of short stories, essays, reviews, and editorials in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals, and online. Theolog The blog of The Christian Century. More About: Links
Foreign fighters in Iraq war
2007-10-10 21:48:00 When CPT Director Emeritus Gene Stoltzfus visited Iraq soon after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, he was impressed by the energy and vision of the Iraqi grassroots organizations he met there. “I discovered endless expressions of generosity, hard work, reasonable hopes for community and humor,” he wrote. “I discovered partners--not the kind of partners that far-away funders require that you have; I found real partners who share a vision for our ages. Like people who live with an eye to the future everywhere, they have long practiced reaching across lines into the neighborhoods of others where the stuff of negotiations begins.” Stoltzfus wrote this reflection to address the issue of “foreign fighters” in Iraq. When the U.S. government and media speak of such fighters, they are referring to Al Qaeda operatives or militants from other groups fighting U.S. forces. Stoltzfus noted that the Blackwater mercenary forces, to which the military has contracted out responsibil... More About: Iraq War , Fighters , Foreign
How to Read Scripture: Bread Not Stone
2007-10-03 21:06:00 Since the fourth century when five books narrating the earliest Jesus movement, several epistles, and an apocalyptic vision were added to the Hebrew scripture to become the canon for early Christians, this literature has been both a deep consolation and a source of enormous conflict. On most issues, scripture offers an astonishing plurality of opinion: genocide, just war, rejection of war, polygamy, slavery, rejection of slavery, the death penalty, rejection of the death penalty, loyalty to a violent and demanding deity, gratitude for revelation that “God is love.” This variety of moral and spiritual ideals makes a simple appeal to scripture impossible. But, as Jesus tells us, God wishes to give us bread, not stone and so it is important to think about how scripture can be a means of grace in these contentious times. From the time that science began to function as the primary model of truth conflicting interpretations of scripture have become, if anything, more bitter. In th... More About: Scripture , Read , Stone , Bread
"The Lives of Others" Not a Road to Damascus Moment
2007-09-17 16:47:00 I commend to you the excellent new film, "The Lives of Others," by Florian Henckel von Donnsermarck. The central drama is the moral struggle within an East German secret policeman as he spies on a prominent playwright and his actress girlfriend. The policeman is a true believer in the East German state -- and the playwright is a hopeful socialist, "our only non-subversive writer who is read in the West," as another secret policeman describes him. The Stasi (State Security) man comes to see that his surveillance is just a tool of corruption and petty politics. The playwright, too, is driven to an act of covert rebellion against the police state. Their lives become deeply entangled. I'll not say more about the conclusion.There is a lovely moment early on when a little boy asks the secret policeman if he is really a Stasi agent."Do you know what the Stasi is?""Yes. My dad says they are the bad men who put people in prison."The audience knows this is a dangerous moment for the little ... More About: Moment , Road , The Lives of Others , Damascus
The Largest Congregation Led By a Woman?
2007-09-09 14:15:00 The Religious Research Association, a fine organization of denominational datawonks (of which I am a member), had an interesting exchange recently trying to find the largest mainline congregation headed by a woman pastor. The results (so far):Rev. Jo Gayle Hudson, Cathedral of Hope, in Dallas, has an attendance of 1500+ and membership of 4500+. This is now a United Church of Christ congregation, but began as a Metropolitan Community Church. Indeed, it was probably the leading MCC congregation. This also explains how there is a UCC – that is, Congregation alist – congregation with the very un-Congregationalist name of "Cathedral." The MCC, a homosexual-oriented Pentecostal denomination, is not mainline, but the UCC is.The next largest woman-led UCC congregation (the largest with a direct Congregationalist history) is Community Church UCC, Vero Beach, FL, led by Rev. Casey Garrett Baggott. It has a worship attendance of 1612 and membership of 2080.In the Evangelical Lutheran Ch... More About: Woman , Largest , A Woman
An unknown air war in Iraq
2007-09-06 00:19:00 I spend about four hours a day reading and listening to news. From most media outlets, my fellow information junkies and I have learned the following: The U.S. was unprepared for an extended military occupation of Iraq . U.S. soldiers are constantly under fire from insurgents’ mortars and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs.) Extended deployments have wreaked havoc on our men and women in uniform, especially those in the National Guard and Reserves. Many of the wounded are receiving terrible medical care at home. The recent “surge” of troops sent into Iraq has begun to turn the situation around, but most Americans think we should withdraw from the Iraqi quagmire. What I have not gleaned from all the news in my life is that U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped 437 bombs and missiles in Iraq during the first six months of 2007. These air strikes represent a fivefold increase over the 86 used in the first half of 2006, and three times more than in t... More About: War in Iraq , Unknown
Not what Democracy looks like
2007-08-24 22:14:00 Democracy in its various forms works like this: A country holds elections. People vote for candidates to represent them. Once the winning candidates take power, they appoint ministers and advisors, while those chosen by the losing candidates move on. The most recent Palestinian attempt at democracy worked like this: Palestinians, in a 2006 election that international monitors declared free and fair, chose Hamas to represent them. The United States, Israel, and other Western nations told Palestinians they had made the wrong choice.Israel withheld tax revenues that Palestinians had paid and Western nations withheld desperately needed aid. The U.S. and Israel then told the Fatah political party that lost the election to "share" power with Hamas. Hamas agreed to do so, even though it had won the election, because it wanted to avoid economic sanctions. Thus, more than a year after the elections, Palestinian police stations and other government buildings were still in the ha... More About: Democracy , Looks
Hollywood Torture Is Still Torture; and It’s Still Wrong
2007-08-07 16:14:00 I’m through with “24,” the ground-breaking, real-time suspense thriller starring Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, protector of home and homeland. Done. Finished. It may seem strange to hear this from someone like me who often writes, teaches, and preaches about the spiritual value of popular culture. It’s also true that some of my favorite movies and TV shows, including ones I write, teach, and preach on, are violent ones. But what I’ve discerned is that, although there are many things I like about it, spiritually “24” is bad for me. Jack Bauer is on my naughty list, he’s not getting off it, and that’s after watching just two shows into Season Two. I hear it gets worse, but I won’t be around to see it. Since I am a writer, teacher, and preacher, my calendar is pretty full. I’m generally a late adopter when it comes to TV series, and I’ve usually been reading about something for years and there are several seasons—or six—out on DVD before I get around t... More About: Hollywood , Torture , Wrong , Olly
What North American media are not telling you about Hugo Chavez and RCTV
More articles from this author:2007-06-29 22:39:00 I think Hugo Chavez made a bad move strategically last month when he did not renew the broadcasting concession of the Venezuelan network, RCTV. The channel carries soap operas beloved by poor Venezuelans--including evangelicals, Pentecostals and Catholics--who enthusiastically have supported Chavez until now. For Venezuelans and others committed to freedom of expression, the non-renewal is also troubling. I would have been alarmed if the Clinton Administration had not renewed the broadcast license of Fox News because they were pillorying him for his policies and extramarital affairs.That analogy does not quite work, however, because Fox News is on cable--not broadcast over the airwaves—and…so is RCTV; it’s on satellite too. Chavez did not shut down RCTV at all. Venezuelans wealthy enough to have cable and satellite continue to have their hatred of Chavez reinforced by the network. In fact, the anti-Chavez oligarchy still controls more than 90% of all Venezuelan media out... More About: Media , American , North , Hugo Chavez 1, 2, 3 |
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