This lovely meme crossed my path today. I was going to print it out and hang it on my refrigerator next to the magnet with the plumber’s name and number, but instead I thought I’d share it here.
Despite my issues with the presentation and substance of this meme, I want to make it clear that I do think we should turn to God when we’re afraid or depressed or worried or sick. I think that’s great. But I don’t think we should reduce God to a trite set of platitudes, for in doing so, we’re at best offering nothing more than a Biblical placebo, and at worst we’re actually contributing to the very problems we’re seeking to address.
(more…)
Something 
I’ve recently encountered several instances of Christians I know calling certain beliefs “heresy.” In one case, a pastor labeled the belief that Christians could be possessed by demons as a heresy. In another, an acquaintance called the entire Emerging Church movement heresy. But what’s the real meaning of such a divisive term? Why not just say “I think you’re wrong?”
There is perhaps no designation within Christianity that is so ubiquitous but yet so difficult to define as that of Evangelical. It is simultaneously bandied about as a term of derision, as a badge of honor, as a litmus test for orthodoxy and as a synonym for fanaticism.
