Alerts?

Does anyone know how to set it so our blog will alert us when a new post is added? Obviously, by looking at the relatively few posts, it may not be all that necessary, but still...

Joe- interesting comments about the church having its doctrinal points settled for 100s of years...but I am not sure I agree. For my schooling, I have been reading (err...forced to read) quite a few books on religion from a sociological perspective, and a few things have really jumped out at me. If you are talking about the Big C Church, and her doctrines about Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology, etc., then I think you are right. However, "our" church, or the modern day American evangelical form (which, consequently, I left happily a few years ago in thought despite my still drawing a paycheck from one..), is relatively new on the scene...about 120 years or so. A few things that are unique about "us." that I think may be fueling your frustration.

Three key thinkers (Finke, Stark, and C. Smith) have argued that churches (or sects) typically align themselves either by engagement (interaction with society as a whole, for example an Episcopalian church in New England, that answers questions about belief/practice/etc exactly the same as the non-churched do...think "liberal" or mainline) or isolation (think Amish). The authors I've grown to love (ahem...) have argued that evangelicals are unique in the sense that we've maintained both extremes- an almost Amish like separation (ie we know who we are by saying what we are not: not gay friendly, not ok with drinking or sex, not ok with "all religions get to heaven," etc.) but are passionately committed to societal engagement. Three reasons for this, says the trio...1. our evangelical spirit viz a viz saving souls, 2. our belief that there is a clearly defined will of God, and 3. (remarkably so) that we know what that is.

The authors interviewed 1000s of religious folks about their views about God's will...and as you would expect many agreed that He (she? ha ha) does have one, but NO other group said that they were the ones who knew it, or at least that they were the only group that did. A staggering 94% of evangelicals did, however.

Furthermore, evangelicals scored the highest (80%, i think) when asked if Christian law/morals should be the law of the land (their argument was typically that since God has a clearly defined will that is knowable, it should be followed, even by those who don't believe in God, simply because it would be "better" for them...). That means that evangelicals are the least likely group to care about offending their neighbor (which we are) because of this parental "take your medicine, it'll be good for you in the long run" mentality.

For a scary book (it is a great read too) read "Kingdom Coming: The rise of Christian Nationalism" by Michelle Goldberg. It's the least academic (therefore least boring) book I've read on the subject. Amazon has it for 5.00 used. She argues that the "there is a will and I know it" thought leads to Christian dominionism: ie Christians have the right (and calling!) to rule non Christians.

Anyways, sorry if this was too "teacher-ish." Not my intention...I'm just fascinated with who "we've" become. No wonder, then, why McClaren and others are hated...

BET