Taking Christ out of Christianity (You are NOT going to believe this!)

The Globe and Mail ^ | March 22, 2008 | The Globe and Mail

[Emperor Palpatine]

Guilty!

[Recovering_Democrat]

Ms. Vosper has written a book, published this week – With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe – in which she argues that the Christian church, in the form in which it exists today, has outlived its viability and either it sheds its no-longer credible myths, doctrines and dogmas, or it's toast.

Gosh, that isn't how the Apostles thought. I think I'll stick with them!

[Hoodat]

Other Christian clergy and theologians have talked about the need to dramatically reform the doctrines of a faith that, with the exception of its vibrancy in the United States, has lost huge numbers of adherents throughout the Western world it once dominated as Christendom.

Did it ever occur that the churches in the United States are doing something right? Perhaps she should have written about the revival of the charasmatic and prophetic movements within the church instead.

Face it, Ms. Vospor. Your church is dead because you reject the living God.

[Northern Yankee]

In fact, many of its congregants want to return to the beauty and mystery of the Latin Mass. I’m one of them.

Me too!

I find great comfort in the celebration and reflection of Holy Week, and The Triduum.

[ottbmare]

As long as I’ve been alive (and that’s coming up on the half-century mark in the next few years) there have been people who have declared that Christianity needs to shed the old myths and prohibitions or “it’s toast.” What fate they foresaw for Christianity or what they meant by “toast” is unclear—perhaps they imagined the empty pews and empty coffers many mainline Protestant churches, like the Episcopal ones, are now experiencing. But interestingly, the independent Protestant churches are booming, precisely because they have not jettisoned traditional beliefs but instead preach the Gospel of Christ in a clear and emphatic way. The parking lots and pews are absolutely jammed at lots of sound Catholic and Protestant churches. It’s the ones who have abandoned Jesus that are failing.

Some people need to wake up and realize it’s not 1968 anymore.

[Unam Sanctam]

The Unitarianization of the United Church...

[ottbmare]

I had people all this week wish me a “Happy Holiday”.

Yeah, they tried that with me too. I smiled and said, "A blessed Easter to you." Some people thanked me. I suspect they were relieved at the lack of PC-ness.

[BibChr]

Well, first clue: lady pastor.

You know right there that she hasn’t bowed the knee to Christ’s Lordship.

If that makes folks mad... I’m really OK with that.

[Dust in the Wind]

"Addressing those statistics, what Ms. Vosper proposes is not so much reform as a scorched-earth approach.(snip) She wants an end to the image of God as an intervening all-powerful authority who must be appeased to avoid divine wrath;..."

She sounds like someone still at war instead of someone who has agreed with the terms of Grace offered. Not in my pulpit.

[BenLurkin]

She does have the look. Like she’ll slap you in an instant — and use the heel of her palm.

[BenLurkin]

Just my opinion of course!

[Deaner59]

Sorry I have to disagree with you here on points one and two. The problem is when the Church jettisons the Truth and not the different expressions of the Truth. How we dress (to a point) and how we may sing praise are not the issues. I completely agree with the rest of the list however.

“man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7b

[Mr. Mojo]

I had people all this week wish me a “Happy Holiday”. Isn’t it EASTER? What Holiday?

Easter (for Christians), Purim (for Jews), Mawlid an-Nabi (for Muslims), and the Vernal Equinox (for pagans).

[grellis]

You’ll get no argument from me.

[ccmay]

OK, you’re scaring me now. I’m pretty sure my own religious views would count as heresy in your eyes.

[Hoof Hearted]

"The world has two choices - you can believe in the son of God and join with the faithful in his church or you can hang with others who play church."

So you think that Jews 'play church'? It's closed minded zealots like you who cause unrest.

[Busywhiskers]

They should dissolve the church and form a Rotary Club.

(No insult to Rotary Clubs is intended)

[Republican Wildcat]

Post modernism meets the Church.

[Hoof Hearted]

" No I believe people are scared to say Happy Easter."

They are?

I've always wished my Christian friends and neighbors Happy Easter. And in December, I tell them 'Merry Christmas', too.

I've had never had any problem as a result of this.

And I am Jewish.

Maybe it's a geographical phenomena. Where is this zone of fear that you live in located?

[Republican Wildcat]

And before you get bent out of shape and tell me that your casual praise band services won't get you to step 7, all I can say is: give it twenty years.

It's an irrelevant, factually false argument.