A Sad “Ah-ha” Moment
20 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
I listened to a few debates this afternoon while at work, a ‘Does God Exist’ debate with John W. Loftus as well as a Unbelievable! program with the same. I also listened to a Dr. Bart Ehrman debate over the topic of Suffering with a Dr. Michael Brown. What makes these two men, Loftus and Erhman, so noteworthy? Well, both me were at one time, Believers, but now profess to be atheist (Ehrman professes himself to be a ‘Liberal Agnostic’) which they don’t believe in God for their various reasons which I will give a brief explanation:
- Ehrman doesn’t believe in God due to all the suffering He has caused throughout the world in real-time (just pick a disaster) and especially as written in the bible about Job.
- Loftus doesn’t believe because he doesn’t believe it’s scientific.
Ok, that’s the short of it. Now, let’s get to the meat of this post: I propose that these two former Believers didn’t stop believing because of the reasons given (listen to their debates Loftus and Ehrman) in their writings and debates, no, I believe they stopped believing due to the down right insensitivity of the fellow believers given their particular situations.
In the case of Dr. Ehrman: Dr. Ehrman’s father was dying of cancer (if I’m not mistaken) and someone from his church anointed him with oil, prayed over him and told him and Dr. Ehrman that he would be healed…he died. That infuriated Dr. Ehrman because in his estimation, his father was given a simple answer…in my estimation, a simple and false answer. Why didn’t God heal Mr. Ehrman? I don’t know. What should have happened is someone from the church or friends from the church just should have suffered with him rather than try to us the bible as a Merck PDR. In my humble opinion, this did a great deal in pushing Dr. Ehrman from the faith.
John W. Loftus: Mr. Loftus was a Pastor and apparently in a weak marriage and combine that with an aggressive woman…Mr. Loftus succumbed to the temptation. Later, after confessing the sin the woman accused him of rape and the faithful in the church took after him like sharks to bloody, raw meat. Was this handled correctly? Probably not. But again, in my humble opinion, Mr. Loftus was sacrificed with no grace.
I’ve seen this sort of thing happen in churches where there wasn’t really any open sin to speak of but there was an air of arrogance and judgment, as a result, grace was in short supply. In the end, grace is much like the air we breathe, not enough and we just die off.
…Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
28 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in America
One of the things that have always disturbed me is the Christian support of the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the command Thou shalt not kill and despite the fact that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves and despite the obvious fact that we were lied into participation, the conservative and fundamental Christian still support our illegal participation in the killing of over 100,000 innocent civilians presently in Iraq alone and 3,000+ civilian deaths in Afghanistan between 10/2001 and 03/2002. Not only is there support, there is utter disdain shown towards those living in the Gaza strip where Palestinians are held hostage due to political Israel’s illegal handling of the situation. Christian man, Christian woman, what’s the deal? Is it really right to kill others in the name of God? Or, is it just easier because here at home, you really don’t have to think too much about it until next Sunday when your preacher will crank up the propaganda from the pulpit…again? So, it’s obvious that “we” are right because “Gaza is Israel’s by right….the Iraqi and Afghani peoples as well as Iran pose a threat to Israel”….blah, blah, blah…Was that the bleeping of sheep I hear? Well, I’ve got a solution!
OK, hear me out. Since America is a Christian nation and God favors us because we “bless” Israel (with weapons) and all that rot, why don’t we just ask God to judge between the United States and Israel on one side and on the other side, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza?…(and let’s throw Iran in the mix to make it interesting).
Soooo, if I’m understanding myself correctly, we should ask God to judge between America/Israel and Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan and Gaza, it’s that simple. If we are as righteous as we whine and complain that we are, God will smite the other guys; however, IF we aren’t, we’re in deep baklava.
Think about it…this simple request would put an end to all the speculation about if we are doing “God’s will” or not, who the “evil doers” are and whether or not the notion of “liberating Iraq” was just a bunch of gas. So, who’s with me!?
