The Rushed Contemplative

What's a guy to do? With the advent of the internet, the ease of blogs, and the mass-distribution capabilities of e-mail, our ability to disparage people quickly and easily has risen to new heights...or rather, fallen to new lows. In fact, one could argue that e-mail is an online WMD (weapon of mass destruction). Should you decide to read on, let me note here that this blog is written from the perspective of an evangelical Christian, who accepts the Bible as God's word to humanity. A few years ago, I served on the board of a large church (not Saddleback or Willow Creek-large, but large nonetheless - around 3,000 people each weekend). During my three-year term, there was some pretty significant conflict revolving around the new Senior Pastor and a small group of people (maybe 1-2% of the congregation) who felt he wasn't doing a good job. The board itself was divided, as well - and more significantly, though it was still a minority (maybe 25-30%) who voiced concerns. Unfortun...

There's been an interesting discussion about fundamentalism over on Todd Rhoades' "Monday Morning Insights" blog. Read it for yourself here . One individual posted comments at least four times staunchly defending the use of the terms Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Baptist, and Christian, which prompted me to offer the following comments (slightly edited here to in light of the different context): The first two are a-biblical terms (i.e., they do not appear in the Bible) that have only come to have meaning in our culture in probably the past couple centuries. (The commenter's own posting of the dictionary definition of Fundamentalism indicates that it is primarily a 20th-century label.) "Baptist" appears in the Bible only in reference to John the Baptist, and the term "christian" appears only three times. While I applaud the individual's defense of fundamental, evangelical theology, it seems to me that his emphasis on keeping tight hold on the...