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12/24/07
and all that stuff ...
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This is going to be religious, so be forewarned. |
For almost 15 years, I was an
active member of a Methodist church in Oak Lawn, after giving up on the Southern
Baptist Convention church of my youth. The Methodist church I attended was
very "high church" with lots of rituals which had been practiced in that
particular church for over 128 years, and I just loved it. What I didn't
love were the seminary trained clergy who seemed to have an aversion to
discussing anything spiritual.
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Pick any sort of social cause, and they were ready to go forward. In
matters of faith, they were afraid of being too "Christian".
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12/25
Tommy Hines:
Merry Christmas and all that stuff is
the best writing you have ever posted.
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One minister asked me to work on a mailer to go out to all the new people moving
into our area. Since our beautiful church building was a real draw, with
all of its history and historic designations, I planned the mailer around the
building and our history on that significant corner. One side of the card
was to have a picture of the church and the caption, "We've been praising our
Lord on this corner for over 125 years." Both the senior pastor and his
junior suckup were mortified. They said "praising our Lord" might "offend
the kind of people we want". They wanted the mailer to say
"worshiping our God" instead. When I pointed out that the Methodist church
was a "Christian" church, they got extremely agitated. That was the
beginning of the end of my days as a Methodist.
After I moved to Northwest Dallas, I kept meaning to find a new church near my
home, but for almost 6 years I found one excuse after another not to do so.
With the year ending and Christmas coming, that church-nesting urge hit me
again. I have been leaning toward one of two Episcopal or Anglican
churches in my area -- even to the point of calling the priest and checking on
Sunday services. Then, the Archbishop of Canterbury dropped his bombshell
that it's not necessary to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus to be a
Christian. That certainly put the brakes on my interest in the Episcopal
Church.
The Archbishop is just one man, but he is the head of a major Protestant
denomination that is very regimented.
Christmas for me is a very religious season. All the parties and gifts and
foods really mess up my schedule and budget. I could do without it all,
except I love the religious aspect of it, even though I have not been attending
a church in several years.
Some truths are real to me without my having any proof.
Planes fly and mostly don't crash, and how that occurs is a mystery to me.
The Egyptians and Mayans built incredible pyramids without modern cranes or
equipment, and how that occurred is a mystery to me. My not knowing the hows and whys does not keep the planes from flying or make those pyramids less
real. My not knowing the exact history of Christ's birth and early life
does not mean I must reject ancient truths as mythology. |
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12/25
Anonymous Episcopalian:
There's plenty to be concerned about with the Anglican
Communion overall, and the Episcopal Church in the USA, but the
Archbishop's belief in the Virgin Birth is not one of them.
Here is the link to the
transcript of the
interview I believe you are referencing,
and the part that's relevent:
SM
The Virgin Mary next door to him?
ABC
We know his mother's name was Mary, that's one of the things all
the gospels agree about, and the
two gospels that tell the story have the story of the virgin
birth and that's something I'm committed to as part of what
I've inherited
.
SM
You were a prominent part of a Spectator survey in the current
issue which headlined' Do you believe in the virgin birth?'
there are some people in this survey who would say they were
Christian who don't have a problem if you don't believe in the
Virgin birth;' how important it is it to believe in that bit?
ABC
I don't want to set it as a kind of hurdle that people have to
get over before they, you know, be signed up;, but I think quite
a few people that as time goes on, they get a sense, a deeper
sense of what the virgin birth is about. I would say that of
myself.
About
thirty years ago I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it
- now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I
believe about the story and yes.
He does go on later to question
whether the three wise men were present for the birth, itself;
whether the date was precisely December 25; and whether there
would have been snow on the ground -- none of which represent
personal theological watersheds for me -- although YMMV.
So -- the Episcopal Church
welcomes you!
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Christianity is more than a philosophy of life. For me, it is the
unalterable truth that Christ was the son of God, that he was a divinity who
lived as a man for a short time on this earth. To believe anything less,
you cannot be a Christian. You can be a Christ follower who ascribes to
some of his teachings, but to reject his divinity is to reject the core of his
teachings.
I had no problem with the Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown because he merely writes about the old story that Christ was
married and sired a child while he lived among man. The New Testament says
Christ came to earth to live as a man. Being married and making babies is
part of man's life. Touching a woman would not make Christ foul or less
divine.
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I have no problem with religious fundamentalists who insist on taking every word
in the Bible literally, even though it is the product of oral recitation and
multiple interpretations. They believe whatever version they are currently
reading was divinely inspired.
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12/26 DonB:
Great story....
I agree with you on all points.
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As a woman, I have lots of problems with the Catholic Church and its freaky
focus on celibacy, which has made its clergy a haven for freaks and weirdos.
As a Christian, I admire the Catholic Church for never wavering from the
divinity of Christ, for never trying to be ecumenical or "all things to all
people".
Last week, I heard "the Cable Guy" on a radio talk show say something funny.
When the host greeted him with "Merry Christmas", the Cable Guy thanked him for
saying "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Holidays". He went on to make a
joke about protecting one the few holidays Christians have, but he was very
sincere about the "Merry Christmas" issue.
One weakness of Christianity is that many of us are afraid to take a stand for
fear of offending someone of a different faith. You don't have to be an
evangelist to be a Christian, but we shouldn't allow the leaders of our faith to
treat the core of our beliefs as mythology or folk lore.
Our celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th does not prevent
non-believers from doing something else on our holy day -- assuming they can
find something open. Our accepting the virgin birth of Christ does not
mean we are dunderheads incapable of intellectual questioning and reasoning.
It means we have accepted Christ's divinity as a truth in our lives.
I have less problem with non-believers and those who scoff at Christianity than
with those who use it as a hammer to coerce people into guilt trips. They
promote their personal charities and projects by labeling them as Christian,
when they are just social service groups that would never bother to witness to
those they claim as their clients.
Religious groups or groups pretending to be religious that use the Christmas
season as their major fundraising tool offend me.
I'm going to Christmas Mass somewhere Christmas Eve, probably the Methodist
Church near my home. If you can't make it to a church, at least say a
prayer of thanksgiving. It is a religious holiday for Christians, and like
the Cable Guy says, we don't have that many of them.
sb
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