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Relationship vs. evidence

My reply to a blog post discussion with an atheist...I was not attempting to convert him. Just sharing my story.  What a neat discussion...I love it when people can talk about these kinds of things respectfully. How much we can learn from each other when we know that the other person is not going to ridicule or go off or resort to insults. THANKS! For what it's worth, my two cents are below. :) I grew up in Evangelicalism, but my faith became the most alive when I ditched the rules and the play-book of 'making converts' through arguing the Bible and defending God (God doesn't really need me to do that anyway). I made it about 'me and God', not 'me, the rules and how I can convince everyone that my religion is right by explaining the Bible empirically'. You can't do that. The Bible isn't a science book. It is a book of experiences and intepretations of experiences by other people - humans as jacked up and confused by life as I am than I was ...
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Why Good People Stay

The question was: Why do parents not protect their children from a place that hurts people in the name of Jesus?  My response:  Because they didn't see it anymore than any of us did who stayed in it for so long. The messages are usually very subtle. We get into the 'good stuff' like the music and the prayer ministries and charity work -  All of that on the surface seems positive and wonderful for the world. Our friends are there, we feel like we have a purpose...We are taught that this is the way, the truth, the life. Unless you dig deeper or begin to work on/with leadership and hear the closed door discussions, you don't realize the under belly. And even then cognitive dissonance kicks in...So when the cracks start to appear, you try and push the questions aside and think 'well, some of that is just on the fringe. Most evangelicals just want to help people' and you make excuses. When the cracks get bigger you try to stick around to change it from the inside.......
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Poetry Reading: The Book of Acts

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I was invited to teach the book of Acts at the survey of the Bible class at church. Acts is a great book because it talks about the beginning of the New Testament church. And all the things the first apostles did we are equipped to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. I only had 30 minutes to teach on it. As I prepared, I started by trying to go through chapter by chapter and summing up what happened. Or summing up the main idea. There's so much interesting stuff that I was getting caught in the minutiae. Being the kind of weird-o that I am, I joked with myself that maybe I could write it into a series of Haikus. Or teach it in sign language or something else off the wall. Then I'd get back to the summary. Then I think I saw a commercial that quoted "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and I couldn't get the meter or the cadence out of my head. And I started to wonder if the book if Acts could be told in poetry form. Risking my pride at being an intellectual ki...
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