We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
The Evangelical Heart
Rachel Held Evans posted recently about The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart. Citing a comment by John Piper (“It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.”) she notes that when we approach the Bible in the ways that we traditionally have, we risk becoming something less than human in our responses to suffering. And we risk worshipping a God that is heartless and cruel and capricious. She calls for us to follow Jesus with both our “head and heart” rather than setting aside empathy and emotion as we approach theology.
May we be a people who do not harden our hearts when encounter things that ought to break our heart.
From the blog post:
I’m not sure he and I will ever understand one another, but I’ve decided to quit apologizing for my questions. It’s not enough for me to maintain my intellectual integrity as a Christian; I also want to maintain my emotional integrity as a Christian. And I don’t need answers to all of my questions to do that. I need only the courage to be honest about my questions and doubts, and the patience to keep exploring and trusting in spite of them.
Category: General
Tags: Empathy, Evangelism, Rachel Held Evans, Theodicy, Theology
Related Reading
Grieving with the God who Pulled the Trigger?
Lawrence Krauss recently wrote a thought-provoking, soul-searching essay for CNN Opinion entitled, “Why must a nation grieve with God?” Krauss was disturbed by a comment made by President Obama at a memorial service for the victims of the tragedy at Newtown CT. Commenting on Jesus’ statement to “Let the little children come to me,” Obama opined:…
Kingdom Sightings: God and Guinness
Evan Leeson via Compfight Here’s a unique Kingdom initiative from one of our readers that we wanted to share with you. If you’re in Ann Arbor, check it out! Starting in January, one of the pastors at our church (Kevin Davis, of 242 Community Church in Ann Arbor, MI) will be starting a new initiative…
Did Jesus Say That God Causes Blindness?
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him (Jn 9:1-3, NIV) Commentators typically appeal to this passage…
Listening Like a Hostage Negotiator
Pedro Ribeiro Simões via Compfight It seems like from the moment we become Christians we’re taught how to present an argument and defend our beliefs. But not many of us are taught how to listen well. This might be why Christians are perceived as arrogant or judgmental. It’s not helping the cause of Christ and it’s…
How Important is Non-Violence? (podcast)
Greg considers how God’s judgment differs from our own, making it an expression of his love. Whereas, for us, judgment stands contrary to our love. Episode 489 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0489.mp3
Divine Drama
Jeff K. Clark posted last week on God as Master Story-Teller and Finding Our Place Within the Divine Drama. There’s an enormous difference between talking about God using abstractions versus locating him in the stories he has chosen to inhabit. God comes to us not only in the history of his interactions with his people,…