I’ll save you some time judging me: I’m a Christian liberal.
What's more, I believe with all my heart that church and state, religion and government, should be separated by a strong wall.
That’s right. It’s something that’s been germinating for
years, and when I hit my forties, blossomed and fruited. When I researched and
wrote my books, it ripened. I make no excuse for this liberalism because I
believe that Jesus was a liberal.
“What??” you may gasp. “Jesus didn’t endorse a political
party.”
Correct-a-mundo. His kingdom is not of this world. But he did command us (who are in this world) to love one another, and out of that godly love
to help the helpless, feed the hungry, be light in the world, and to love
mercy, justice, and humility.
As you’ll see in these articles, written from about 2004 to
the present, I believe in the liberality of God, who gave us a choice: be
liberal and enjoy his kingdom, or be stingy, rapacious, and inhospitable like
the citizens of Sodom,
and be destroyed.
I’m not telling you to follow my political ideology (which
is Independent, and not recognized as a party). You’re free to make your own
choices. But I’m not ashamed to be called a liberal if that means emulating
Jesus, and obeying his commands.
“…We carry the offering, which we
administer in order to honor the Lord
himself and to show our eagerness to
help. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we
administer this liberal gift. For we are taking
pains to do what is right, not only in the
eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.” 2
Cor. 8:19-21
“And when you release them [slaves, indentured servants,
employees], do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor
and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you.
Remember that you were slaves
in Egypt
and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this
command today.” Deut.
15:13-15
“Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
who conduct their affairs with justice.” Ps.
110:5
I hope you’ll be blessed by these articles, and that you’ll
be moved to generosity and liberality with the citizens of this world,
regardless of whether they “deserve” your gifts. We give as unto the Lord.
***********************
Click the color text (hyperlinks) to zoom to the articles.
He's done it again. The man who is known for his career as a
world-famous neurosurgeon and advocate for education has said that
electing a terrible person to office means laying aside your Christian
principles for a time. It hasn't even been six months since he said that being nice gets you nowhere.
 |
Following a week of controversy surrounding Donald Trump's admission of
grabbing women's genitals, and a steady stream of women coming forward
to say they'd been groped or assaulted or leered at while in a changing
room, Dr. Ben Carson, who has defended...
When the
American Family Association boycott of Target began in May 2016, it was
not about who uses which restrooms (because Target has locking
restrooms for baby changing and disability access), it was about *FUNDRAISING* for the AFA. It's not about
transgender people threatening your vulnerable daughters in a public
restroom, or exposing their genitalia to impressionable children,
somehow twisting children to an inevitable fate of gender reassignment.
The kingdom
of God is within you.
My friends are from all over the
world. And the best friends of all don’t even belong to this world! We are
aliens. We’re not green and tentacled, but we don’t fit in with most other
earthlings. We belong to the Kingdom
of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a pie-in-the-sky
futuristic kingdom that we’ll see shortly after Jesus’ Second Coming. It’s now,
and it’s been here since we accepted salvation or “got saved.”
Christians should not support a candidate like this.
With all the poo being flung in the name of Christianity,
from Christians right and Christians left, from atheists at Christians, and
Christians at nonChristians, let's just stop and contemplate this lovely bit of
wisdom from the New Testament.
Some Christians, perhaps many Christians, will be offended
at this meme of Jesus meeting a man who is begging for healing.
"Sacrilege!" they'll huff, and turn away in disgust, just like the
Pharisaical lawyer and the Levite priest turned away from the beat-up, nearly
dead traveler on the Jericho road.
Surely you've read the Parable of the Rich Fool numerous
times, and you probably learned, as I did, that we should never say, "I
worked for this or gained this all by myself," and leave God, the
Provider, out of the statement. We should always give thanks that God has
blessed in his provision. But you may have missed a very important concept that
appears twice in Jesus' words.
Nothing changes in 2,000 years. As the United Kingdom is in their few weeks of campaign
season, and America
is in it for 18 months, I looked up a delightful page called Random Political
Rhetoric Generator. On the third push of the button, the generator supplied
this: "My opponent is conspiring with sex workers, socialists and smelly
hippies."
On a vacation in September 2006, I lived in the past,
visiting cathedrals, parish churches, national parks, archaeology sites,
castles, and farmhouses in England, Wales, and Paris. This was my third pilgrimage
to where my ancestors lived, worked, and worshiped.
Baptist persecution and religious liberty in early-colonial America
Mary Barrett Dyer, 1611-1660, deliberately gave her life for
"liberty of conscience," which is the freedom to practice and believe
as your conscience dictates without government interference. The attempted
blending of church-state functions continues in state legislatures across America
even today.
On June 1, 1660, our constitutional right to religious
liberty began with the execution of Mary Dyer in Boston. The result of her civil disobedience
was a royal charter of liberties granted to Rhode Island, which was a model for the
United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights. There were many factors along the
way, of course …
In 1636, the first rumblings of religious schism were
vibrating in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anne Hutchinson was holding women’s
religious meetings in her home that eventually included some men, including the
young governor of the colony, Sir Henry Vane. They discussed the sermons on the
“Covenant of Grace” …
The Calvinist Puritans of colonial America believed that one could
never know if God would award salvation and eternal life.
Top 10 things you may not know about Mary Dyer
Mary Dyer: The establishment versus the individual
Mary Dyer and freedom of conscience
Mary Dyer and the First Amendment
Mary Dyer, pioneer of civil disobedience
Mary Dyer: The establishment versus the individual
Mary Dyer and freedom of conscience
Mary Dyer and the First Amendment
Mary Dyer, pioneer of civil disobedience
No comments:
Post a Comment
Courteous, constructive comments are welcome. DO NOT include your email or link in your comment, or it will not be published. (This protects us from spam or personal identity hacks.) ALL comments are moderated.