Confessions of a Seminarian

Expelled vs Exposed!

Well, I dont want to steal to much of the thunder from these sites, but if you havent heard about Ben Stein’s presentation of the movie Expelled, it is creating some waves.  Probably the largest reaction to it I have seen is the site Expelled Exposed, and it offers an opposing point of view regarding the material presented in Expelled.  The whole issue is regarding the inclusion of intelligent design as an equal theory to the theory of evolution.  Exposed claims that science operates on assumptions that can neither prove nor deny theological claims, and as such intelligent design theories have as much place in a science classroom as a geometry theorem in an Old English literature course.  What are your thoughts?

Seven New Deadly Sins???

According to the Vatican, there are now seven more deadly sins. The first seven were updated due to the modern world being one of globalization where many modern practices were ambiguously sinful in the minds of Catholic followers. See the CNN interview here. The seven new sins are: Read more »

the allure of separation

It’d be nice to get away and stay away, wouldn’t it?

Definitely.  That really sounds sweet right now.  Some distance.  Getting away. Running away. Why not?

Since the inception of the Christian church, movements within Christianity have advocated, at one time or another, a separation from society as a standing way of life.  The corruption is rampant, they’ve basically said, and we must cut ourselves off to save ourselves, our children, our faith.

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it’s not 2008 yet, is it??

Part of the downside of the 24-hour news cycle is that what wouldn’t pass for news 10 years ago passes for news now. The air, the pages, and the Web sites have to be filled with something.

I thought of this while noticing a recent article in the New York Times about the supposed “splintering” of evangelicals as it pertains to the 2008 presidential election, and cultural issues overall. I find the article to be a mixture of accurate understanding of history, yet also an ignorance of evangelicals overall.

This ignorance of understanding evangelicals happens a lot in the media, and it’s nothing new. Other religious groups no doubt experience this as well, the attempt by various media outlets to effectively label and fit the values of people into 250 words or less. It was in 1993 that a Washington Post reporter labeled evangelicals as “poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” Other labels have not been this insipid, but labels regardless abound.

(And before you prepare to comment, I recognize that evangelicals label folks just as much as anyone else.)

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