Linkathon!
Christianity being wiped out in Middle East…
Kurdish Muslims converting to Christianity?
Is porn use grounds for divorce?
There is no darkness too dark…
Study claims religious kids meaner…
Is the bible inerrant or infallible?
How to keep your iPhone from ruining your relationships…
More on defending denominations…
Christian arbitration a con game…
Mormons declare gay couples apostate…
C.S. Lewis on evolution vs. evolutionism…
“Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”…who cares?
A terrible article on “sinful grief” that I will speak to later…
Thanks, as always to EricL for the help…support his business at top right.
study claims religious kids are meaner … that’s one difference between religion and life in Christ … looking back from my advanced years, raising 4 kids in church life, perhaps it just proves that God has no grandchildren
I only read the intro to the p*rn/divorce article as no time to devour the whole thesis but I can see I already agree with the author that indeed it is grounds – and I too came to that conclusion as a result of an academic assignment where I was to study the issue of divorce in the larger sense with all its aspects, and deal with it in a substantive paper using the Bible as my authority.
The caveat is that a woman who wants out for whatever other reasons and thinks finding an internet trace or a magazine under the bed is her golden ticket to blamelessness is in error. (I am sure the author says the same)
But I’ve seen unrepentant years-long addicts of the stuff that are most definitely guilty of fornication in the eyes of the Lord, are negligent in the Biblical commands about our bodies in marriage, and in the worst cases start going down a road that endangers the children of the house, either physically or at least their innocence as they “discover” what Dad is up to.
when belief is complicated seems very correct … IMHO
the attempt to purge the Middle East of Christianity will have those “unintended consequences” me-thinks
have to read the denominations links as, more and more, i think they make sense
The sinful grief article was lame. If how she responded helped her personally deal with the aftermath of her miscarriage then that’s fine. I have no problem with that. But i think she errs when she encourages other women to follow in her footsteps because I don’t think people already dealing with a very devastating loss need to feel soul crushing guilt that their (very understandable) emotions are sinful.
Ok, I’m shocked. And this is going to sound hard but I have lived through this issue and my feelings about it are strong.
After writing 1200 articles for Covenant Eyes (I would think that would take a while) and then answering tons of email from broken, traumatized wives of porn addicts, he tells them all that divorce is not an option. And sends them back to their prison.
I think this shows why it is so important to be a Berean and search the scripture and find out for yourself what a word or a verse means, especially if your life or marriage is hanging in the balance.
I was disturbed that this was his “opinion” (and I guess he was considered an “expert”), that he had not really searched it out in the Word (at least not like he finally did), but he handed it out like candy to broken people.
It reminds me how messed up the church is. He should have told women that he had an “opinion” which he confesses he did, and pointed them back to the Lord and told them to search it out for themselves. And perhaps helped them be Bereans.
God save us from our Christian experts! My heart breaks for the many women he counseled.
Judy. You make a very good point. I don’t know the author or the ministry but his background says he has both a BA and a MA in philosophy, religion. So clearly an educated guy.
However, your observation is a fine example of why I tell people if they are looking for Christian counseling then go find a Christian counselor – licensed, educated, experienced. Fulltime.
Not a pastor (or other Christian ministry person). A pastor can pray for people and encourage them, can listen to people, and can point out when the Bible is clear on an issue in those (rare) occasions when a person may not know what the Bible says.
However, a pastor is not the Holy Spirit. And a pastor BETTER study very hard BEFORE coming to dogmatic, black and white, conclusions of what is allowable or not in the Christian life. All the more when telling people about their own families. And THEN, should be clear he is expressing his opinion only after his own personal study.
How does a guy like me get forced into the study and paper writing on this topic when just in initial ministry training and a guy who has an entire ministry devoted to the subject, dealing with real people and marriages just finally get around after the fact to looking deeper into the Bible on the topic.
I am glad he eventually did so, but I share with you your feelings towards the prior women he counseled – because I know that most people will look to such a one and if we say “Jump” they will say, How high.
It is a fearful task before the Lord.
Mormons are not a controversial denomination as Charisma describes them. They are a full blown cult.
No surprise about Charisma.
They have all the theological discernment of a wet tissue.
The story of there being no darkness that is too dark was powerful. It hurts that so many children have been violated in such wicked fashion.
As this now grown man struggles with the path his molestation took him this tactic of the enemy is used in all sorts of situations where many find themselves struggling.
“The struggle is against condemnation that (unceasingly) says, “You’re filthy and unworthy of anyone…You have nothing important or helpful to offer anyone…Just hope for death, everyone would be better off.”
Thankfully God’s grace is always available.
Read the entire article. As he stated, he once held the position that this did not comstitute adultery, but now after doing the paperaol, he now belie es it does provide just cause for biblical divorce.
High time, and way overdue.it is despicable interms what the patriarchal system has place within its rank to excuse sexual immorality in any form including pornography, prostitution, womanizing or anything else that would give the message to another that this married person is available.
it is impossible to be married, and single at the same time.
My family in Las Vegas are all Mormon, and my great-aunt usually posts some inspirational quote from some Elder Mormon, and this week she shared a link from
I usually wouldn’t link to a Mormon site, but the article quoted their President,
“The family is safe within the church. We are not in doubt as to the course we must follow. It was given in the beginning, and guidance from on high is renewed as need may be. As we continue on our course, these things will follow as night the day: The distance between the church and the world set on a course which we cannot follow will steadily increase. Some will fall away into apostasy, break their covenants, and replace the plan of redemption with their own rules.”
Sometimes I wonder how the church has it so wrong, but a leader of a cult can just nail it.
Well that didn’t turn out like planned.
https://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/pastor-who-wants-gay-people-executed-says-nobody-is-more-persecuted-than-the-duggars/
This guy takes one sin and amplifies it above all other sins as it were.
My Bible says that there is none righteous and that all have fallen short of the glory of God.
I agree that the article on sin and grief is lame. What the author attempts to not do is what she actually does. She confuses sin and grief and truly does an injustice to the pain and grief of miscarriage. She may understand the pain of one miscarriage but how about 2 or 3 or even 5 or more miscarriages? This lady needs to get a life.
I strongly agree with Olsen on the inerrancy v infallibility debate. Inerrancy is most properly an accounting or a scientific measurement term. It fails when applied to the Bible most obviously when it has to be qualified with a long list of denials and affirmations. By the time the qualifiers are all stated I am never sure what remains of the original claim.
The Bible is quite simply the revelation of God given through men filled with Spirit. The Bible is the record of the self-revelation of God mediated through eye-witnesses and those to whom the Lord reveals himself.
I agree with Bab’s agreement with Olsen. Claiming inerrancy & infallibility seems much like saying “I swear on my grandmother’s grave this is true.”
It isn’t needed.