Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/05/05/the-big-four-markers-of-the-evangelical-tribe/
I’ve commended Jonathan Dudley’s excellent book, Broken Words, for his frank and insightful assessment of the four tribal markers that characterize the boundaries of American evangelicalism: abortion, homosexuality, evolution and environmentalism. Opposition to all four of those constitutes evangelical tribal identity.
Such opposition need not be active or particularly outspoken. What’s important is the “stance” of opposition, to use the lingo of the tribe. That “stance” must be “firm.”* When someone takes a “firm stance” against any of the Big Four, they solidify their identity as a member of the tribe in good standing. When the firmness of one’s stance against any of these four is in question, so too is one’s status, identity and membership in the tribe.
We need to hear these voices.
An invitation from an incredibly progressive evangelical church (For a related post, click here http://christiannightmares.tumblr.com/post/2601211787/church-sign-the-peter-in-me-found-at)
In Indonesia, the law guarantees citizens freedom of religion, but only as long as they adhere to Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism. By expressing his atheism Aan - who posted the phrase “God doesn’t exist” on a Facebook page – is held to have breached Indonesia’s official state philosophy (known as the Pancasila), which requires citizens to have “Belief in the one and only God”.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2012/03/28/a-better-atonement-jesus-dies-with-trayvon/
“In other words, Jesus was with Trayvon, lying on the sidewalk, with a bullet in his chest. If Trayvon was able to cry out to God–and even if he was not–Jesus was there, with him, dying.
The call for us who live is to identify with Christ’s suffering and death, much as he has identified with us. In his death, we are united with his suffering. And in identifying with his resurrection, we are raised to new life.
In the crucifixion, God opens the Trinity to us. The eternal love of the Trinity is made available to us in the ultimately humbling act of death on a cross, and our experience of godforsakenness is overcome, for we are now welcomed into the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
The homophobic Christian world should be applauding gay marriage. If it’s anything like the heterosexual variety, there goes the torrid sex it finds so disgusting.
Sounds about right.
I can’t think of a worse way to conceptualize serving one’s neighbor.
