Monday, June 23, 2008

Very Sad

This article makes me feel very sad.

And maybe proves the theory that Oprah is the Anti-Christ?

Or at the least shows how Christianity, in the eyes of history and the world, has evolved from a religion that focused on others to one that now focuses on the self, with no absolutes.

Am I being too dramatic? Should I be sad? What do you think?

2 comments:

Seth said...

I wouldn't be so sad about it. It's generally a good thing when Christendom crumbles.

This guy has some thoughts on it as well.

http://thecorner.typepad.com/bc/2008/06/because-god-say.html

especially like the claiborne quote at the end.

Katie Webster said...

I blame the church far more than I blame Oprah. I think the church has missed the mark in truly challenging people to live lives "worthy of their calling". We too easily work to be attractive, fun, and easy - looking at our numbers rather than whether or not we are truly creating disciples. When people are confronted with information that is somewhere in the middle or entirely non-committed, they have no real measure for what makes it different than what their church is saying. We've all but lost the small-group meetings that fueled the early church and helped to hold people accountable. Having said all of that, I also think some of the questions in this survey are sadly flawed. The question on heaven refers only to works - so I could care less which way people vote - and I blame the church for not better explaining this crucial truth about our eternity. I do appreciate the answer that involves the use of reason and tradition (part of John Wesley's quadrilateral) because I think we need to use both in discerning what God is currently speaking into the world and into our lives. As you know LT, I'm super liberal in my general theology -- so I don't mind this stretch of the church rules/dogma that I think have blocked people from truly knowing Christ for far too long -- but, I'm so sad that somehow a relationship with Christ has also been washed away. The two need not go hand-in-hand. In fact Christ desperately tried to destroy the dogma of his day so people would have more room to hear about His father. I'm not sure why the modern church isn't better following that example.