Separation of Church and Faith, among other things.

[equustel]

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

This fascinating article has been making a trip around the interwebs lately (I actually first came across it at one of my daily haunts, io9.com - a sci-fi news site; go figure).  I made a couple of hasty replies there from work, because if there's anyone who can't resist a good old-fashioned religious debate, it's

Comments

[roxybisquaint]

I like this, but I'm going to have to come back and read this a little more closely later (I'm too distracted with other things right now). I think I completely agree with everything you said though. And it was refreshing for someone to say it all.

[equustel]

Oh, thank you. Truth be told, I was rather hesitant to post this - expected most of my f-listers to just sort of scratch their heads and look at me funny, so it means a lot that it meant something to you!

[ebongreen]

First, nicely done. :-) The fundamentalist-as-Pharisee has been clear to me for some time (and to me, it's not necessarily evangelism, but fundamentalism that's the culprit). You may know about this already, but if not... ;-)

There are so many wonderful things to be said for being a synthesist - science AND spirituality, logic AND faith. They're not mutually exclusive. Even though I have several potentially paradoxical ideas in mind on the nature of Truth - such as, it exists, humans perceive it fitfully if at all, and proof of Truth is essentially impossible - it's still something that I consider deeply and feel that it's worth considering often. :-)

I have to go for now; perhaps we'll pick this up again later.

[equustel]

You may be right about the terminology - fundamentalist is a more catch-all term for the type of mindset that's talked about here. I'd never even heard the term "evangelical left" before, although now that I'm looking at that list of names, it makes sense!

And so much YES re: the synthesist approach. I fully believe these things are meant to work together, not separately. (Heck, there could be no logic without intuition. That's a cause-and-effect chain that, when you really start breaking it apart, is pretty mind-blowing, no pun intended

[krisology]

You write so awesomely. You should do it more often.

Except for some reason I have a really hard time reading your font against the background. lame. (for me)

[equustel]

Yeaaah, I really suck about being prolific, don't I? ;P *hides*

And sorry again about the font color - I really am planning on adjusting it soon, I promise!

[newsong]

I only had a chance to skim both articles, yours and his: I want to look at them both more in-depth.

As for: "It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come?" They ARE coming. I've met some. Asians and Africans both. The problem with this guy's article is that it focuses on the death instead of the rebirth of a new era - the Spirit era.

According to the Jewish calendar, the final age began in 1999. Here we are ten years in and the false ideas are dying. People are craving truth. And they're finding it in God through the scriptures and through Christians that are actually like Him.

[equustel]

I didn't know that about the Jewish calendar - can you elaborate on exactly what "the final age" entails, according to them? I'm fascinated.

And yeah, the original article writer mentions near the very end that a new and more Christ-like church will rise after this one finishes dying, but it probably would be more constructive to talk about the ways in which that is already taking place. However, I understand where his need to rant comes from. This is a subject that's always righteously pissed me off, too. Feels good to vent a little. ;)