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Tag: Christianity

Chris·ti·an·i·ty: The religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, sent by God. They believe that Jesus, by dying and rising from the dead, made up for the sin of Adam and thus redeemed the world, allowing all who believe in him to enter heaven. Christians rely on the Bible as the inspired word of God. Posts in this category pertain to social, political, philosophical, and moral issues regarding Christianity.

  • An Inspiring Witness

    The Colts’ 17-13 JV win over Arizona was meaningless in the Super Bowl hunt, but for the mostly backup players on the field, it meant a great deal. Hunter the Punter eloquently describes the sentiment:

    “Coach Dungy has a heart that beats in all these players,” punter Hunter Smith said. “This game is about money and entertainment and all those things, but every once in a while, you come across a special person. His heart comes through in every part of his life. And now I see it coming through in us.”

    That Dungy is a man of faith is well-known, and it is the foundation of the near-universal respect he garners. But it is in times of trouble that one’s faith truly becomes both a source of sustaining strength and an inspiring witness. Tony Dungy’s faith exemplifies both:

    “There’s a story in the Bible,” Dungy said, speaking to a small group of reporters after his news conference. “David’s son is sick, and they’re praying for him. The whole time, he won’t eat, won’t do anything. The son ends up dying. What David says, basically, is ‘I’ve got to go to temple and worship. I’ve got to get back to work.’

    “Everybody asked him how he could do that. And he said, ‘Now that my son is in heaven, there’s nothing I can do.’ As Christians, we believe the future is in God’s hands, and we have eternal life.

    “. . . More than anything, I had to make a statement that, if I’m a Christian, if I feel like God is in control of my future, I’ve got to move on, as tough as it is. My wife (Lauren) and I discussed it and (returning Thursday) was something we felt was necessary. We’re still healing, but it’s important to move forward.”

    At one point, he was asked how sorely his faith was tested.

    He took a long pause.

    “You always have those questions,” Dungy said. “But I never felt like God dealt us a bad hand. I’ve heard from so many people and we’re not the only ones who experienced the death of a child. . . . The Lord has a good plan for your wife and family, even if it doesn’t seem like it now.”

    Amen.

  • Aslan Is On The Move

    Christians love it; liberals hate it

    Last week’s release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW) has created quite the media buzz, and quite a blogstorm. Blog coverage began long before the movie’s release, and reached a crescendo just before release. And even before its release, the vitriol was evident, as RedState.org pointed out (more on the vitriol later). Several bloggers have weighed in, and collected the thoughts of those that did:

    Much great discussion among the God-Bloggers about the movie:

    I think nothing sums up the difference of viewpoint than the following:
    This oft-quoted section of John Mark Reynold’s review:

    If you think the wolves in the wood should never be fought, then you will hate this film. If you think evil does not exist, you will be uncomfortable. If you believe forgiveness is cheap and bad behavior has no cost, then this film will make you furious. But if you are like most of us, then this film will make you shout for joy.

    Tonight for the first time in a long time I watched a film that made my heart ache with the beauty of the scenes, made me cry, stirred my passions, and made me think. (All those neo-Platonisms! Surrounded as I was by Torrey students all of whom have read the Timaeus, we were the only audience in the world to burst into applause when Aslan asked, “Where is the fourth?”)

    Compared to this oft-quoted passage from Polly Toynbee’s column (itself deserving of a good fisking):

    Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to?

    If you look deep enough, contained in these two divergent viewpoints is the entirety of the source of the excitement and agitation generated by Chronicles.

  • GodBlogCon 05

    GodBlogCon God Blog Convention
    GodBlog Convention 2005, Biola University

  • Christian Carnival LXX

    A Pentinent Blogger has posted Christian Carnival LXX: Long Day’s Journey Out Of Night:

    The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

    Romans 13:12

  • Christian Carnival LXIX: Semicolon

    Christian Carnival LXIX has arrived, hosted this week by Semicolon:

    Welcome to the Christian Carnival and to Semicolon. I pray that you will be edified, educated, and encouraged as I was in reading and thinking through ALL sixty of the entries for this week. Yes, I read them all. Have fun as we blog through Ephesians 6.

  • Slashdot Does Narnia?

    brightMystery links to a discussion of Disney’s upcoming Narnia movie at – of all places – Slashdot. The good professor rightly points out the bizarre nature of such a topic at Slashdot, and then describes first one commentor expressing discomfort that CS Lewis’ classic Chronicles of Narnia series “was really Christian propaganda”, and second, the reactions of later commentors “basically calling the first one out for expecting a writer not to write from the standpoint of his religious beliefs”.

    Quite funny, actually. Anyone with an IQ sufficiently high to frequent a site such as Slashdot and who has read the Chronicles of Narnia at any point past the age of, say, twelve should realize that Lewis – much more than just writing “from the standpoing of his religious beliefs” – wrote the series as an allegory of the Bible.

    Unfortunately, I agree with the professor’s assessment of the eventual outcome of a Disney production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (to be titled Narnia as previously mentioned).

  • What would Jesus Do…?

    Arianna Huffington acrimoniously asks “What would Jesus do… with Tom Delay?” and then fatuously answers her own question:

    Would Jesus strong-arm lobbyists to pay for his golfing trip to St. Andrew’s in Scotland? Would Jesus let a lobbyist pay for him to stay at the Bethlehem — I mean, London — Four Seasons?

    Would Jesus, were he to smoke, and were he to be smoking on federal property, and were he asked politely not to, then reply: “I am the federal government.”

    Would Jesus say, “Judges need to be intimidated. They need to uphold the Constitution… We’re going to go after them in a big way.”

    If DeLay and his pious pals had been around for the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most famous line about humility ever spoken would have been given a rewrite:

    “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth… unless the pushy hire Jack Abramoff at 750 shekels an hour; then the meek (and the Indians) are screwed.”

    Oh, why not? I’ll have a go at it. Of course, I’ll just use one example – actual words of Jesus – as He might have responded to Arianna Huffington and her rock-wielding circle of friends:

    If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.(John 8:7 NIV)

  • Christian Carnival LXVIII

    This week’s Christian Carnival is hosted by Kentucky Packrat.

  • Wittenberg Gate: Christian Carnival

    Wittenberg Gate hosts this week’s Christian Carnival:

    Posts are divided into the following categories: Apologetics, Bible Study, Books, Christian Living, Church Issues, Culture & Current Events, Family, Gospel, and Theology.

    Do you think anything I write is carnival-worthy?

  • Pseudo-Polymath: Christian Carnival LXVI

    Christian Carnival LXVI, brought to you by Pseudo-Polymath:

    Welcome to Christian Carnival number LXVI. Thank you all very much for the time and effort XX of you have put into preparing the essays which make this carnival possible.

    The theme for today’s Carnival is to try be akin to liturgy, that is I’m going to try to organize the posts as best I can to parallel a service of worship. What that means is that after reading the (your) wonderful essays, I categorized it by what part of the liturgy it evoked for me. So enough about me, let’s go in a join the service.