In a lengthy PDF document about all the apostasy happening in the church today, I am included in a list of some of my greatest heroes as being one of those Christians you ought to avoid.
I join the likes of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Brian McLaren, Phillip Yancey, John Eldredge, Charles Swindoll, Eugene Peterson, Calvin Miller, J.R.R. Tolkien, Brennan Manning, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, George MacDonald, Matthew Fox, Leonard Sweet. and Erwin McManus in being described as part of the Emergent Church movement, which is essentially a one world religion akin to the kind Tim LaHaye would warn y'all about. This all stems from the fact that I practice contemplative prayer and bothered to write an article about it online, which has made me infamous.
All I can say in response is, I'm glad I'm being considered worthy to stand amongst such company, and I hope anyone considering me for work reads all this material with a grain of salt. Or maybe a large brick of it.
That's awesome. Congratulations. I had no idea I was reading the blog of someone so dangerous. You should feel honoured to be listed in such prestigious company.
ReplyDeleteBack, demon! Back!
Congratulations Mike! That is some pretty impressive company to be keeping!
ReplyDeleteMan, I aspire to make on of those lists one day...
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kevin. I can only aspire to be counted with such great company.
ReplyDeleteThis list opened my eyes. I'm pretty sure you're not Jesus at all.
ReplyDeletedammit Kris, you've seen through my not-so-clever ruse!
ReplyDeleteWell Mike I've never been listed as anything by another writer, so kudos to you for being recognized in this auspicious list.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost certain that Jesus would have made a list like this made up by the prominent religious leaders in his day.
ReplyDeleteHonestly... I'm reading that PDF file right now, and the impression I get is that it was written by either an Amish, or a Mormon (Because I guess that the Mormons believe that the scriptures have become distorted over the centuries...) Newer Translations skewing our perception of the bible? WTF? And how does reading it in old english not skew it? Reading it in old english may require us to get out the dictionary and translate it into modern english, thus causing us non-english scholars to inevitably skew the scriptures that way...
ReplyDeleteBoring, Amish who go to church... dully mutter their praises as if it was a menial chore... Man kind is wonderful in their ability to come up with excessive rules for things. The Pharisies did it, and now we do it... even I do it, I guess...
Hmm... so analysing the way human psychology works is evil... wow... I guess biology must be evil too... (sarcastic)SHUT DOWN THE HOSPITALS! TURN OFF THE PACE MAKERS! LET THE PEOPLE HEALED BY EVIL DIE!(/sarcastic)
It seems to me like that article uses only half truths... like darwins thing. This article says that Darwinism teaches that we evolved from lower organisms. In reality, I'm pretty sure that all the observations it makes are acurate and do not point to us evolving from micro-organisms, only the inaptly named microevolution.
Personality tests! "Personality tests (as “Spiritual gift” tests) are based upon the
Zodiac (horoscopes). They are neither scientific nor Christian.
Martin and Deidre Bobgan rightly state, “Psychotherapy does not
lead one to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; nor does it
encourage belief in the Bible as the inspired Word of God.”" Ooh, so here at Camp Valaqua, we are practicing things of the devil in checking out our personality. (I'm writing this as I read it, just in case it sounds weird). Are they going to tell me next that chemistry is also demon inspired and of the devil?
Hey Mike, any idea what these people were smoking when they wrote this? This PDF is more of a comedy/farce than anything else. It has some of the most ridiculous Ideas I've heard. Even the notion of evolution has more credibility than this pile of B.S. Zodiac signs my ass! The personality tests I have done are both consistant and totally reflect my personality.
Granted there are a few (so very few) points I agree on in there, but they are sooo far and inbetween. If we were to follow this crap to the letter, I probably wouldn't even be a Christian, because I wouldn't be allowed to worship God, or Love him, or anything. No Rock and Roll... Pssh... I met a slightly drunk someone in Calgary who gave us her testimony, and it was because of modern Music that she came to know Jesus.
"""C.S. Lewis was no Biblical Christian.
Lewis embraced evolution, and rejected Genesis as “full of myths”
and Job as “unhistorical.” In his book Reflections on the Psalms,
Lewis wrote, “For long centuries God perfected the animal form
which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself.”
[So according to Lewis, Christ would be the descendent of an
ape!—The Lee’s.]""" Question: Was that before or after he became a Christian that he rejected Genesis? I get the impression from the Chronicles of Narnia that he believes this "ridiculous stuff" in Genesis.
K. I'm going to go to my laptop, and see if any other camp staff want to read this with me and have a good laugh. Because according to it, none of us are Christians. Didn't this article claim that it's focus was "Saved by faith, not works"? (I'll have to look again) If so, why is it focusing on works? Did some Pharisee come back to modern times?
Ok, I'm gone. And congrats on getting your name onto the list. Keep it up, you dangerous Christian you. (See you later)
And I just got to this part about Narnia:
To the horror of any thinking Christian, Lewis portrayed Aslan, the
lion (supposedly a picture of Christ) as leading in a wild drunken orgy
on a witch’s high holy day (Mid-Summer’s Night)! The children of
the story (alongside demonic creatures) danced around Aslan as the
Maenads danced around Bacchus in that debauched party. Lucy (one
of the main characters of the story), felt disoriented and confused in
the midst of the party. Wine flowed freely.
The biggest load of crap I have read, ever. It's even worse than the "Magic Poketrinkets" attack on the use of money in the Pokemon RPG I read once (a supposedly Christian article). I recall no instance in which Aslan leads an orgee, etc.
Why the heck do people distort the truth by taking it out of context, and then proceeding to view it through a kalidascope? There never was an orgee or drunken party led by Aslan! He may have had a drink or two, (I do not recall), but these were CHILDRENS BOOKS, for goodness sakes! Belgium! He did not write about an Orgee! The only way you get that is by looking for accidental negative connotations, like high school children, who laugh every time they hear the phrase "do it!".
Now that I've read this, I don't believe much of anything it says about C.S. Lewis.
The sad thing is, there are many other "Christian" articles that intentionally misquote and twist information just to prove something's evil, when it's really not.
Anyway, I had better go now... before I start ranting again.
I feel an urge to enter into this converation. Sir- lunch-a-lot, you seem more angry than me when I read lies...and that is saying a lot...I have rage issues. On the other hand I have come to see that one must learn to embrace and revel in the hate/fear of others to destroy it. Drown them in whatever kind of love you know. It is not constructive to argue and expound because peoples' minds have been made up, not always autonomously, hence the passive voice. Also there is no need for Pharisees to time-warp into our time because ignorance is a disease which has never been purged from the human race...and probably crows too, those animals are insanely intelligent therefore they must also be ignorant.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely debunked though Sir-lunch-a-lot, a short responce you gave yet you showed some major flaws in the argument of the initial article.
Oh by the way Thor er um Mike this is Weez, I decided to leave a comment after a few years of reading your on-line writing. Keep up the "heresy", I have been slipping further and further into an agnostic existance. Without Chrsitians such as yourself to breath fresh air into the musty sanctuaries of the world I would give up on searching entirely.
Hi Mike;
ReplyDeleteI just came upon this blog doing a search for some George MacDonald material. I'm nearly done writing a biography on his fantasy stories. I have a couple of chapters posted at blogspot; one of them called, "The Un-Fundamentalist", has a couple of lengthy quotes from, "Unspoken Sermons", and one of his letters which shows in very certain terms how he viewed the bible. It might be worth a look.
http://georgemacdonald.blogspot.com
CS Lewis seemed close to being a fundie at times but toward the end of his life he was much more skeptical about things like biblical infallibility. He wrote the following letter to Clyde Kilby in 1959 after Kilby requested that he say a few words about biblical inspiration:
“Whatever view we hold on the divine authority of Scripture must make room for the following facts.
“1. The distinction which St Paul makes in I Cor vii between [“not I, but the Lord”] and [“I speak, not the Lord”].
“2. The apparent inconsistencies between the genealogies in Matt I and Luke III: with the accounts of the death of Judas in Matt XXVII 5 and Acts 1.18-19.
“3. St Luke’s own account of how he obtained his matter (I.1-4).
“4. The universally admitted unhistoricity (I do not say, of course, falsity) of at least some narratives in Scripture (the parables), which may well extend also to Jonah and Job.
“5. If every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights then all true and edifying writings, whether in Scripture or not, must be in some sense inspired.
“6. John XI.49-52. Inspiration may operate in a wicked man without his knowing it, and he can then utter the untruth he intends (propriety of making an innocent man a political scapegoat) as well as the truth he does not intend (the divine sacrifice).”
when i was a theology major at a fairly prominant bible school several of these authors were required reading material. So what does say about the professors, and the larger institution. Oh well, guess I'm damned forever. At least it will be warm where I'm going!
ReplyDelete"A religious person tries to convert you with their words. A devout person tries to convert you with their lifestyle."
-Ti