St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church
During the Holiday Season, Remember to Share
It’s so easy to get caught up in the idea that this time of year belongs only to us.
Newsflash: the existence and acknowledgment of other beliefs does not damage or diminish your beliefs – unless you choose to let them. It’s all on you.
If you think that your Governor acknowledging the existence of other beliefs is oppressive to Christians, you’re lucky that you haven’t experienced real oppression and you don’t really understand what oppression is.
thanks to The Stranger for the image
Praying for bad things to happen to others
Dr. Dobson’s group, “Focus on the Family” has started a prayer campaign to pray for rain at Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination.
This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered “Christian” groups praying for rain to hurt others. When I was a teen, the band Cheap Trick came to play in my little town of Palmer, Alaska. My church started a campaign to pray that the concert would be rained out. I spent most of my youth wondering why “Christians” focus so much of their energy and prayer towards hating and hurting others rather than actually doing good. I still wonder.
By the way the concert was a rare, beautiful 70+ degree day.
Update: the weather was beautiful. The only rain occurred in the Fox “News” booth; it was flooded due to a sprinkler malfunction.
The DaVinci Code
I read The Da Vinci Code when it first came out. I bought the book and sat down and read it cover to cover in a day while I was on vacation. Then I read it again. The second time I read the book I was near a computer so I took the time to look up the art and some of the concepts referenced in the book. (There’s a newer version out now, with pictures of the referenced art work – I recommend the newer version if you can get your hands on it.)
It’s a good book. I read it cover to cover in a day and I need a riveting plot to get that done. But the plot is the best part of this book. It’s the plot that made it a best seller; the prose is ham-handed and he could have really used some help with line editing. But a good plot makes up for that – and should make for a good movie as you can breeze past the excessive use of adverbs and adjectives and just show what happened.
Controversy? Of course there’s controversy. And that helps with selling books. I read Satanic Verses because of the fatwa imposed on Salman Rushdie (excellent book, by the way). I read banned books. Controversy is the best way to get read.
Here’s what I think:
- The book is a work of fiction. do not use this book for spiritual guidance, that’s not its purpose, it is made for entertainment.
- The controversy is not new – it’s as old as the nicene creed.
- The church will survive the exposure.
- This book gets people thinking and talking (and unfortunately, some people talking without thinking).
- If this book makes you think and even question your faith, that’s good. Unthinking and unquestioned faith is one of the sources of our current problems in the world (and yes, I mean Christians too).
- Use your brain. Try to avoid knee-jerk reactions.