August, 2006

Here are some quotes from Spencer Burke's and Barry Taylor's just released book, A Heretics Guide to Eternity.

[William Ventimiglia] goes on to quote Jesus' analogy of the Holy Spirit as a wind that blows where it chooses and writes that this element of God's action in the world has “always been a problem for organized religion with its well-established categories of understanding.” (Heretic's Guide, p8)

This reminds me of Reido's use of this same quote. Let's look at it.

continue reading "A Very Quick Look At "A Heretic's Guide To Eternity""

Revisiting James Fowler's Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (1981):

Stage 6:
[Stage 6 is exceedingly rare. The persons best described by it have generated faith compositions in which their felt sense of an ultimate environment is inclusive of all being. They have become incarnators and actualizers of the spirit of an inclusive and fulfilled human community.

continue reading "Stage 6: Quest for Meaning"

We've had some great discussions at faithCommons over the past twenty months or so. Speaking for myself at least, I'll say that I've grown quite a bit from the discussion and through the insight of others here. Now seems a good time to reflect and remember some of those threads.

There are many new readers that have come our way recently. Thousands of first time visitors found faithCommons over the past several weeks. So, for these new readers, and for nostalgia's sake, I thought I'd list some of my favorite discussion threads from the past.

continue reading "Some of My Favorite Discussions From the Past"

Currently, I'm working on a site upgrade and some layout improvements. The software upgrade is really the easy part—comparatively. Your help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The model that I'm mulling over consists of concentric circles and some overlapping circles.

The concentric circles include:

• Layer One: local content such as blog posts, comments and forum threads

• Layer Two: aggregated posts from bloggers we know (kinda know, as in online acquaintances of like-mindedness) as well as weblinks to recommended sites

• Layer Three: aggregated blog posts, news articles and weblinks from social networking and tagging aggregators like Technorati and Del.isio.us.

continue reading "How Can We Improve the Page Layout and Content Structure at FaithCommons"

Terry Hornbuckle was found guilty on three counts of rape yesterday. Bishop(?) Hornbuckle is (was?) the founder and pastor of Agape Christian Fellowship church of Arlington, Texas. (Their website takes the cake as the most over-the-top, hurt-your-eyeballs flashy, church site that I've ever suffered) Internet searches for news about his trial and its verdict brought almost 1,500 visitors (so far) to this site over the past couple of weeks.

continue reading "The Hornbuckle Effect"

(Second attempt) Hullo, I'm new here and probably jumping the gun by posting a new thread right away. Sorry, but it's important to me. Here goes.....

You don't have to believe in God to be here (but it helps). “Nature”, “The Universe”, “Evolution” or plain “Sociology” will work just as well; it's much of a muchness in the end anyway. I believe in God personally so, if you don't, excuse me and just bear with the language.

continue reading "Grabbing the bull"

Have you ever taken a vow or made a significant promise, a promise that would determine how you lived the rest of your life? How did you feel about it? Was it life changing? On the other hand, have you ever been handed an ultimatum? Was making a promise or taking a vow different than facing an ultimatum? Did either experience leave you feeling empowered to make a difference in your life or the lives of others? Did either leave you in a spirit of powerlessness as if you'd been forced to give away a part of yourself?

One of these, taking a vow or reacting to an ultimatum, is a choice and a commitment that we often make after much consideration. The other is a choice—often between bad and worse—demanded of us by another person, or group. One is empowering, the other constraining. One is likely to leave you with a new sense of purpose while the other leaves you feeling ravaged. One is your choice and the other is really no choice at all.

continue reading "Comparing Creeds and Power With Commitment and Purpose"

This is sure to raise objections but time has come to speak out. Just yesterday in simple conversation a devout Christian rattled off his repetition of the Abrahamic Promise and Romans 11 as being fulfilled in present day conflict in the Middle East.

I am prone to view many fundamentalist beliefs as rather harmless except for the brainwashing that's continually provided to/by their adherents. This one is not so innoccuous. Reason being that people are going to get killed and in part the justification is God's Sanction and the inevitability of the literal fulfillment of the land of Promise.

continue reading "Fundamentalist Christianity and Restoration of Israel"

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a critic of Emerging Church. Well, I wasn't before. I've read hundreds of screens full, plus several books on the subject, over the past two or three years. But I'm beginning to tire of it all. Perhaps it's time to go on to something else. How about “Divergent Church?”

continue reading "Divergent Church"

This quote from a person I assume is named Hines (please inform me if you are aware of the full identity) at The Church of the Churchless website.