For a number of years Islamophobic politicians and pundits have been saying the Islam teaches that Muslims can lie to non-Muslims. In this short video I suggest we look at the facts.
There is a substantial difference between the real United Methodist Church and the image of the UMC asserted by traditionalists anxious to justify their decision to leave it. The real UMC is tens of thousands of congregations and pastors faithfully witnessing to Jesus Christ in the difficult context of contemporary society. In reply to my recent blog post ( https://xroadschristianityandculture.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-remain-in-umc.html ) Kevin B responded on Facebook, " The article is good in mentioning the positive contributions the Methodist connection has made even before the UMC was formed, but it fails to address the significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice that has caused this split. " The charge that the UMC has "significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice" is now a commonplace among the group identifying as "traditionalist" and their associated organizations like the Good News Movement, the...
In a recent editorial in Good News Magazine Rob Renfroe confesses that he is confounded by the fact that the majority of UM bishops favor the “One Church Plan.” ( https://goodnewsmag.org/2018/09/september-editorial/ ) He professes to comprehend progressives who want same-sex marriage and ordination of LBGTQ persons to be universally allowed in the UMC. After all, they are simply insisting, like traditionalists, that their interpretation of scripture be worked out in the governing of the church. What confounds him is bishops who could accept both a traditional and a progressive position in the same denomination. And he suspects that this is because the bishops don’t take seriously enough how committed the traditionalists are to their understanding of God’s order for human sexual relations. He feels misunderstood, which is the way we all feel when someone disagrees with us. Renfroe is not alone in being confounded. Progressives are often equally confoun...
God, or humans? The key questions dividing Christians from Christians have changed. They have moved from being questions about doctrine to being questions about the fundamental assumptions Christians bring to the ordering of human society . These in turn hinge on different understandings of the nature of revelation and who has the authority to interpret it. The recent Vatican Document on Human Dignity has, along with the recent division of the UMC (and earlier divisions in other Christian groups) further lay bear these differences within Christianity. On one hand there are those who believe that the ordering of human society, and thus what it means to be human in society, was fixed by God from the beginning of creation. Any deviation from that order is an offense against human dignity. On this view same-sex marriage diminishes human dignity because humans were created for the union of a man and a woman or to be celibate. This doesn't mean humans in a same-sex marriage have no dign...
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