Tag / Religion

by Greg

The "Word Of God"?

The last two podcasts from The God Journey have been on the topic of Scripture. Good stuff. A few moments that might have challenged me before, but I have been thinking about what the “Word of God” is recently as well. We read through John not too long ago, and everytime you read that phrase there it’s referring to Jesus. A person. The “living & active” Word of God. (Ref: Heb)

I went to Bible college. I learned to revere the Book as many Christians do. But I think I have come to see that the Bible is a very special book that helps us to know God’s heart for us – but we can easily be tricked into worshipping IT. (Rather than the God from whom it comes.)

Good line from one of the podcasts (the second one) was when a friend of one of the hosts was asked, “Do you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture” his reply was, “I believe in the infallibility of the God who gave it to us.” 🙂 That was good.

I do not believe in the super-holy-magicness of the book that I hold in my hand. I do not believe in the “power of prayer”. My hope, my trust, my life is in the One whom I know through those things. God is not limited to the pages of my Bible (nor are the pages actually limited to the type that is on them, which is equally cool!) He IS the Word. (Well, Jesus is, anyway) and that is way cooler than a book 🙂

(Don’t worry… I still think the Bible is the super coolest book… I just think that sometimes we give it more credit that God intended it to have.) 🙂

I’ll take him any day.

Links?
The God Journey Podcast
The Wonder of Scripture (3/23/07)
The Wonder of Scripture II (3/30/07)

by Greg

An Article on Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith

Not sure how many of the readers of this blog also read my Newsvine column (it is linked to the right over there at the top of the page…) so I thought I might link to an article I posted there today re: the DVD Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith.

I also included links to coverage by the local Utah media as well. Fascinating. 🙂

If you’re interested, read the article here.

by Greg

Anti-Mormon, or Pro-People?

Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVDThere’s quite the firestorm happening out in the western portion of our country this week. Following the distribution of nearly 500,000 DVDs on Sunday by several hundred volunteers across the US, and abroad, the reaction has been swift and (at least to me) surprising.

TV stations and newspapers across Utah and around Phoenix, AZ are covering this story in the “top stories” sections. The headlines usually include “Anti-Mormon DVD” or some other hot-button phrase. The quotes are all basically saying, “This DVD is wrong, we’re right, end of story.” One website actually has publicly labeled the DVD “Mormon-bashing”, saying, “Hate directed at any of us is hate directed at all of us. From whomever that hate comes, and to whomever it’s directed, ADL takes it very seriously and will continue to speak out against it.”

The “spin” is hilarious. Anti-Mormon is the most popular phrase, but most reports paint the producers of this DVD as vehemently against the LDS church and Mormons in general.

I know the folks who made the video. They love God, and love people, and have the best motives to help people get free of a religion that is based on stuff they have found to be “unreliable” at best. (As well as being a very works-based, performance-based religion… which is never fun.) But I was not sure about that whole door-to-door distribution thing as we put the site together, and … perhaps I was right.

Can you ever accomplish anything good by “forcing” (even gently) something on someone else? Especially if it involves saying, “You’re wrong, and I’m right.” I know that’s not the intention of the people who made the DVD, but it’s just that whole thing of “Harsh words stir up anger, but a gentle answer turns away wrath.” The anger has definitely been stirred up. I think it’s certainly misplaced… there is definitely merit to what I have seen on the DVD (at least worth checking into) but this way of distributing the DVD has certainly “stirred up the hornet’s nest”.

Fight, fight, fight. That’s all we do when religion is involved. Whether it’s the big stuff like, “Who do you say that I am?” or just silly little stuff like arguing over semantics of a word in a certain Bible verse – or even sillier, arguing over music style or some other totally irrelevant thing. It is so sad to see how much religion polarizes people (though that word is inaccurate as it suggests only two possible opinions. Perhaps fragments would be a better choice. Whatever the word, the effect is undesireable.) The only folks that I see Jesus being angered by in the various accounts of his life are those who would put so many religious restrictions on others. But Jesus himself even loved them, too.

Mostly, I think we’re “supposed” to get along. We are all children of the same Father, created to live every day to the fullest (which means living it step-by-step-in-step with Him.) A lot of us don’t. Sin has trapped us. We’re kept from knowing the Truth. Not some certain list of “right thinking”… but Jesus said that HE is the Truth. He is the way. That’s not a club by which to bludgeon the non-Christian infidel. That’s an invitation. God became man, just because he loves us. Jesus spent so much more time NOT “doing ministry” than he did in the public eye, healing and teaching. He said the greatest commandment is to love God, and love other people. That’s it.

We get so caught up in the details… and we just end up fighting.

I hope this DVD does help some folks to break free of the bondage of religion. I know (as you can see from the links below) that it will cause division. That’s very sad, but expected. But as one who would love for there to be peace at least from people who have a strong desire to know the God who made them… I do hope that some good comes from this project. A lot of people have poured a lot of life into it. (And I can tell you that it is most certainly not simply “Mormon-bashing” or “hate[ful]” in any way.

It’s just… religion vs. religion… will always cause fights.

So, for kicks (just cause it’s kinda crazy that a website that I worked on is in the news in Utah and elsewhere…) here are a few links related to this DVD…

Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVD – Official Site
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Press Release
A site created to specifically address the “Search for the Truth” DVD
Google News Results for “Joseph Smith DVD”

by Greg

Making God In Our Own Image

On a few occasions lately, I have come across a story, or a verse from the Bible that doesn’t seem to match what I know of who God is. From my understanding of him from the whole of the Bible, and from living life with him every day, interacting with him, getting to know him… it doesn’t seem to fit. And yet it’s right there in print… in the most well-documented book ever. So I am then faced with a decision. Do I believe what “I know” about God, or what I am seeing from him right now? That’s not an easy question to answer.

I actually believe it might be a bit of both things. Certainly I can not know everything about God, just as I can’t know everything about any other person… even moreso can I not know the fullness of who God is. However, I can also trust what I do know of him as a way to interpret/understand what I am reading that seems to “contradict” that. From there, I figure I need his help to understand the stuff I don’t understand.

Some examples. Recently I was having an IM conversation with a friend and talking about how I don’t see Jesus living out life as though there are two worlds: the Sacred vs the Secular. It seems to me from all the events I see in Jesus’ life that those two worlds that I think we created were quite intermingled in Jesus’ world. He would hang with the “sinner” as well as the ultra-religiously-pious. My friend however pointed out that Jesus would often remind his disciples to not be “like the world”, or, “like the gentiles”. Seems as though Jesus was making a separation, or a distinction there, no? Still, I can not resolve that with the way Jesus treated everyone. Though there may have been a verbal distinction, all were treated equally by Jesus.

Another comes from reading some of the stories Jesus told in the last week before he was killed. My boys and I are reading through the book of Matthew, and there’s some crazy stuff in the 25th chapter. Mostly stories about “the end times” where there appear to be people who do right, and then opposing people who “do wrong” (or, don’t do right). So… it sure sounds like in story after story that either you “do good” in life, or you’ll be “thrown into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.” Does that sound like how Jesus lived? Will he just be different when it’s the “end of the world”?

See, what I end up saying most of the time to the boys is, “I really don’t know.” They usually laugh a little, but I hope they learn from that. I don’t want them to think we have all the answers, and that once they learn them and can pass the Jesus test, that they then know God… end of story. Life is certainly not about knowing the answers. But I do want to know him, and sometimes the things I think I know of him do not match some new stuff (or sometimes, old stuff) I am learning about him. That’s when I stop to consider the fact that some of what I know of him might just be stuff I made up about him.

Confusing, I know.

Perhaps this is too much analysis… but it is what I have been thinking. And all of this makes me want to read my Bible more, and learn from everything I see of Jesus, and even his followers, contained in those pages. I want Jesus to unfold the reality of himself – who he really is – in every part of my life. I love that we don’t have a “church life” as we used to know it, and that Jesus is truly part of our entire lives these days. I only want know him more and more… really know him… not continue to create my own ideas of who he is.

That’s the amazing part about living life with Jesus, and his Spirit in us… it’s dynamic. He’s the same, but our understanding of him can change as we learn what is him, and what we have made up. Fascinating. A little scary, but exhilirating.

How incredible that he wants that relationship with us! We are friends of God! (That’s from Romans 5…) As puzzling as he may be sometimes, I know that I can count on that being true… and so we press on to know the God we could never create.

What a trip!

by Greg

Working on The Book…

No, not “The Book”. Just, my next book.

I am sitting in a coffee house for a couple hours today, reading through all my old posts from last year. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and looking forward to not only compiling and organizing, but just sharing these stories from the past year that I believe will encourage people in their current walk with Father.

I came upon this post from last February today, and thought I’d add a link to it here for you. In December, I had someone tell me they’re “not that religious” again, and as I read this post, I thought of that, and of all the people I know who try so hard to be good, and are missing the joy of the freedom we have in Jesus.

Don’t know if you’re burdened today, trying to keep up a good image for people, or even for God. But, perhaps this story will encourage you, too.

I’m Not That Religious