What's Up With Liberal Christianity? # 4 - An Atheist's Response to Liberal Christianity
Quotes from my own previous post:
By definition of liberalism alone, a person is saying he or she is under no guiding authority and is free to decide what is right and what is wrong.
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. John 8:31
Here are parts of a post written by atheist and maker of the film, "The God Who Wasn't There", Briane Flemming on his weblog.
Flemming: "Tuesday at the Christianity in Question event in Louisville, it was a fairly full house (and another added screening, but this one because one of the local papers had listed the screening as starting at the wrong time). The audience was a bit different, though--a mix of conservative Christians, liberal Christians and freethinkers."
Flemming: I think that fundies (Christ-followers) believe crazy things, but I acknowledge that once you step into their fantasy world where a hateful, disturbed god wrote a book called the Holy Bible, the hateful, disturbed conclusions of Christian fundamentalists do make some kind of internal sense.
Royal Comment: It is perfectly normal for a pre-believer to not only misunderstand, but to think Christians are crazy. It takes faith and listening to the Holy Spirit to understand the secrets of God that were and are reveiled through Christ.
Matt. 13:11-12 Then (Jesus) explained to them, "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not. 12To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them.
Flemming: Liberal Christianity, despite being non-hateful and on many issues even ethical, is hopelessly incoherent, however. Liberal Christianity says a perfect God wrote a perfect book--but he made mistakes. Or, alternately, liberal Christianity says the book is an extremely flawed and even disgusting work written by men--but special attention should still be paid to it. Liberal Christianity says religion shouldn't stand in the way of science--but a dead man did really rise from the dead. Probably. Or, at least, it's not unreasonable to believe that he did (or that he turned water into wine and walked on water). Liberal Christianity says the love of Jesus is the only way to Heaven--but if some people don't believe that, it's fine to let their deluded souls go off to Hell without even trying to stop them. Or maybe Heaven and Hell don't exist at all--but it's still very, very important to praise this figure called "God." For some reason.
Liberal Christianity wants to drink the Kool-Aid but pretend there's no cyanide in it. And nothing pisses off liberal Christians more than having the incoherence of their beliefs laid bare.
Rev. Joseph Phelps, a liberal Christian (who does, by the way, believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and is capable of saying so in as casual a manner as this parenthetical), dealt with my critique of his brand of Christianity in the easiest--and most empty--manner: by accusing me of being a "fundamentalist" atheist. I'm getting so tired of this line that I usually just ignore it, hoping the audience will simply see through it. But sometime I suppose I'll have to come up with a pithy way of explaining that a person who believes that 1 plus 1 equals 2 is not embracing "fundamentalist" math. He's simply rejected 1 + 1 = 3 as flawed
Royal Comment: Liberal Christians like being Christians because of the consumer benefits that come with Christianity, like going to Heaven and being forgiven for their sins. They want to believe it is OK to be liberal because it cuts way back the list of sins, and the list shortens daily. Being liberal and tolerant makes them more pupular. (So they hope)
But as Mr. Flemming I believe concurs, they lose the respect of the people they are trying to please. I believe they also lose respects for their own "powerless" beliefs and in themselves.
Atheists are not the only ones that call Liberal Christians foolish. Jesus said, "But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. " (Matt. 7:26)
Training as an apprentice of Jesus
Royal
By definition of liberalism alone, a person is saying he or she is under no guiding authority and is free to decide what is right and what is wrong.
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. John 8:31
Here are parts of a post written by atheist and maker of the film, "The God Who Wasn't There", Briane Flemming on his weblog.
Flemming: "Tuesday at the Christianity in Question event in Louisville, it was a fairly full house (and another added screening, but this one because one of the local papers had listed the screening as starting at the wrong time). The audience was a bit different, though--a mix of conservative Christians, liberal Christians and freethinkers."
Flemming: I think that fundies (Christ-followers) believe crazy things, but I acknowledge that once you step into their fantasy world where a hateful, disturbed god wrote a book called the Holy Bible, the hateful, disturbed conclusions of Christian fundamentalists do make some kind of internal sense.
Royal Comment: It is perfectly normal for a pre-believer to not only misunderstand, but to think Christians are crazy. It takes faith and listening to the Holy Spirit to understand the secrets of God that were and are reveiled through Christ.
Matt. 13:11-12 Then (Jesus) explained to them, "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not. 12To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them.
Flemming: Liberal Christianity, despite being non-hateful and on many issues even ethical, is hopelessly incoherent, however. Liberal Christianity says a perfect God wrote a perfect book--but he made mistakes. Or, alternately, liberal Christianity says the book is an extremely flawed and even disgusting work written by men--but special attention should still be paid to it. Liberal Christianity says religion shouldn't stand in the way of science--but a dead man did really rise from the dead. Probably. Or, at least, it's not unreasonable to believe that he did (or that he turned water into wine and walked on water). Liberal Christianity says the love of Jesus is the only way to Heaven--but if some people don't believe that, it's fine to let their deluded souls go off to Hell without even trying to stop them. Or maybe Heaven and Hell don't exist at all--but it's still very, very important to praise this figure called "God." For some reason.
Liberal Christianity wants to drink the Kool-Aid but pretend there's no cyanide in it. And nothing pisses off liberal Christians more than having the incoherence of their beliefs laid bare.
Rev. Joseph Phelps, a liberal Christian (who does, by the way, believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and is capable of saying so in as casual a manner as this parenthetical), dealt with my critique of his brand of Christianity in the easiest--and most empty--manner: by accusing me of being a "fundamentalist" atheist. I'm getting so tired of this line that I usually just ignore it, hoping the audience will simply see through it. But sometime I suppose I'll have to come up with a pithy way of explaining that a person who believes that 1 plus 1 equals 2 is not embracing "fundamentalist" math. He's simply rejected 1 + 1 = 3 as flawed
Royal Comment: Liberal Christians like being Christians because of the consumer benefits that come with Christianity, like going to Heaven and being forgiven for their sins. They want to believe it is OK to be liberal because it cuts way back the list of sins, and the list shortens daily. Being liberal and tolerant makes them more pupular. (So they hope)
But as Mr. Flemming I believe concurs, they lose the respect of the people they are trying to please. I believe they also lose respects for their own "powerless" beliefs and in themselves.
Atheists are not the only ones that call Liberal Christians foolish. Jesus said, "But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. " (Matt. 7:26)
Training as an apprentice of Jesus
Royal
posted by Royal | 11:15 PM
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