For decades, all denominations of the Christian church have been pre-occupied with human sexuality: sexual orientation, gender identify, birth control, and abortion. Some denominations seem to focus on these issues to the exclusion of all other social issues. As I read the Bible, Jesus taught more about concerns for the poor and the downtrodden. Some who call themselves Christian, however, seem comfortable with throwing 23 million people off of access to medical care. I don't recall any righteous indignation about spending $110 million on a painting or $300,000 for a purse. The media portray it as cool even if it is outrageous.

A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars

A few months ago, I downloaded the Kindle version of this 2012 book by Jonathan Merritt titled: A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Through the Culture Wars. A few weeks ago, I finally got down in my pile of unread books and started reading it. May was a busy month, and I kept getting interrupted by other priorities.

Heaven

I didn't post on the blog around Easter because of the death and/or disability of too many friends in the past year. The hope of Resurrection seemed weak in my heart, and I couldn't fake overcoming the depression. I believe strongly in the Holy Spirit, but I struggle with the theology of our bodily resurrection and the concept of heaven and hell as a physical place. God isn't "out there" someplace, even though there is a world of the spirit that exists parallel to our known universe of our senses. My years of Bible study have convinced me that we place too much emphasis on trying to define or demonstrate God in terms of personification That limits God and our understanding and our knowledge of the world. We claim we know all the facts because of science, and state that we can't prove (or disprove) the existence of God. That's a false assumption. We really don't know or understand the world or the mind, even with the advances in science. There is still just too much that we don't know,