Christianity

Unhappy Fault – Christian Perspectives on Righteous Anger

Touchstone | Leon J. Podles | August 2009

Any institution tends to preserve itself by avoiding conflict, whether external or internal. In addition to this universal tendency, many Christians have a false understanding of the nature and role of anger. It is seen as something negative, something that a Christian should not feel.

In the sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church, those who dealt with the bishops have consistently remarked that the bishops never expressed outrage or righteous anger, even at the most horrendous cases of abuse and sacrilege. Bishops seem to think that anger at sin is un-Christian. Gilbert Kilman, a child psychiatrist, commented, “What amazes me is the lack of outrage the church feels when its good work is being harmed. So, if there is anything the church needs to know, it needs to know how to be outraged.” [Read more…]

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So Help Me, God

BreakPoint | T.M. Moore | July 21, 2009

The old saw makes an all-too-true point: How can you tell when a politician is lying? Are his lips moving? Americans have become increasingly cynical about their leaders.

We want to trust them, and we hope they’ll tell us the truth and keep their word. But it seems that, when push comes to shove, politicians are only interested in their own agendas. [Read more…]

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Duty to Share the Truth

AFR | St. Ambrose | July 20, 2009

While listening to Ancient Faith Radio today I heard a really insightful quote from St. Ambrose. I don’t recall the exact wording, but here’s the gist of it.

St. Ambrose exhorted Christians to not only take care of the poor but also to share the truth with others. He said that those that know the truth and fail to share it are just as culpable, or more so, than those that do not do acts of charity for those in need. [Read more…]

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Our Adolescent Culture

BreakPoint | John Stonestreet | June 3, 2009

What Diana West is suggesting in The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Threatens Western Civilization will undoubtedly sound ridiculous to thousands of youth pastors, family therapists, and advertising gurus whose livelihoods depend on entertaining, counseling, and selling to teenagers.

Nevertheless, West argues that adolescence didn’t always exist. In fact, it is a quite recent phenomenon. The word “teenager” wasn’t really used until 1941, after all. In virtually every other culture in the history of the world prior to late 20th century Western culture, kids became adults. Not so anymore. They now become teenagers, or, to put it in more sociologically acceptable terms, they become adolescents. [Read more…]

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Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer?


AFR – The Illumined Heart | Kevin Allen | Jun 5, 2009

This is one of the most perplexing questions for all Christians. In this episode of The Illumined Heart, host Kevin Allen engages author and theologian Dr. Jerry Sittser, author of the book “When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer”, in an honest conversation about this often ignored question. His answers are not academic or simply formulaic and come from the deep and hard places.

Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer? – 6/5/09 http://audio.ancientfaith.com/illuminedheart/ih_2009-06-05_pc.mp3|titles=Why

[Read more…]

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The Church Everywhere

BreakPoint | Stephen Reed | May 29, 2009

Chuck Colson is fond of saying that the church shines brightest in tough times. History appears to support BreakPoint’s founder on this, as Christians have served extraordinarily well in a variety of ways during economic difficulties and social unrest. John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa—none of them had ideal circumstances in which to operate. That is why their respective ministries were so needed.

So what happened to America? Here we are, known far and wide as the most religious country in the West, and yet people constantly turn to the government more than the church in times of crisis. President Obama’s approach of having the federal government bail out banks, the automotive industry, and now perhaps even credit card users makes him the man of the moment. Obviously, even if the nation’s churches banded together and gave sacrificially to bail out all these entities, we probably couldn’t pull it off. [Read more…]

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When Faith met the Free Market

Life, Liberty Blog | Daniel | April 22, 2009

Is the Christian Faith compatible with a Free Market economy? Many lay people and most clergy would probably answer that question negatively, especially during these times. But is this really the case?

Kevin Allen, at Ancient Faith Radio, discussed these topics and much more with Chris Banescu. The answers Mr. Allen received are very enlightening. This is a must listen to anyone, not just Christians, who work for a living, which means it is a must listen for everyone. [Read more…]

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Helping Students ‘Get It’

BreakPoint | John Stonestreet | May 15, 2009

A major project for those of us who work with students is to help them “get” Christianity. While a significant number of Christian students reject Christianity during their university years, far more struggle to embrace a faith that is not really authentic or orthodox. Theirs is a “moralistic therapeutic deism,” as Christian Smith put it—a tame faith that is privatized and perhaps personally meaningful but which is not publicly true, culturally significant, or fundamentally informative to the rest of their lives.

Rather than trying to make Christianity as attractive and entertaining as possible, we ought instead to be sure that what we are communicating to them is actually Christianity. As I noted, this is very challenging in a culture of information overload, where students are bombarded daily with a multitude of messages, most of which, encourage them toward a mentality of adolescence.

Still, there is good news. Adolescently minded cultures like ours inevitably have a leadership vacuum. So, there remains a terrific opportunity for influence for those who produce the leaders, especially if they produce networks of leaders who can think deeply and contribute broadly to a wide variety of cultural institutions.

How can we do this? [Read more…]

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Cowards, Sorcerers and Murderers

OrthodoxyToday.org | John Kapsalis | May 2009

If any of us ever found ourselves in a situation where we witnessed a car accident, I’d like to think that we would all stop and help, no matter how inconvenient. Or if we had to intervene to save someone from being assaulted, surely we would get involved no matter what the cost to us. It would be the right thing to do. After all, if we didn’t we would be wracked not only by guilt but also by shame. Who could live with themselves as a coward in such circumstances?

Yet everyday most of us act like cowards. Not because we don’t stop to help someone in need, but rather because we stand idly by while millions of people die moment by moment without knowing that God loves them. We are cowards because there is family and friends who have no relationship with Jesus Christ and we casually spend endless hours and years talking about everything under the sun, except telling them about the treasures of knowing Christ. [Read more…]

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How Deep the Father’s Love

BreakPoint | Stephen Reed | May 6, 2009

The weeks following Easter can be filled with both joy and intrigue for the believer who tries to figure out the mysteries, especially those which may not always yield so easily to the mind’s constant prodding. Anyone, even non-believers, can resonate with the story of Jesus triumphing over this world, walking and talking among His followers again, then ascending to the Father who saw Him through it all.

However, when the routines of life pick up again, we can either return to them, though with a bit more spring in our step, or we can wish for a life that really reflects the new hope. [Read more…]

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