Some people would have woken up in Northern Ireland yesterday morning, excited and hopeful of real change coming.
Others, not so much. Continue reading
Category Archives: Spirituality
Why Christians don’t need to be afraid of meditation (and other hell damning practices).
The Liturgists – Vapor – A Meditation
When I first started thinking about meditation, like many Christians brought up in a Western, fairly traditional church, my immediate thought was of some type of weird new age tool that required me to position my already inflexible limbs in unnatural ways on the floor and try my best to not fall asleep.
Or, I would reference David in the Bible and how he would meditate on G*d’s word, which added boredom to the mix of uncomfortableness and drowsiness.
But mention the word to many Christians and they will stiffen up and warn their friends about you and how you’re heading straight to hell. Continue reading
Not all ______.
Sometimes there is an extremely wrong thing to say in a situation. For example, you probably shouldn’t say “When are you expecting?” to someone unless you were absolutely there when they peed on a stick.
You should also never say, “maybe Trump has some good points” to anyone at any time, any where because lying makes baby Jesus cry.
Similarly you shouldn’t ever respond in discussions around “Me Too” with phrases, “yeah, but not all men” or when you hear someone lament the road that Evangelical Christians have taken with their support of Trump, there is no need to quip that, “not all Christians are into egomaniacal, narcissistic, lying leaders”.
Most likely the people that you are responding to already know that it is not the entirety of the group in question who are like this or that. The only purpose in stating “not all ______” is to make ourselves feel better.
Continue reading
The failure of others’ validating our God experience.
As a good Protestant Christian, I was brought up to believe in the inerrancy and absolute truth of the Bible. The Bible is true and there may be some difficult things in there but ultimately it is God’s word and can not be questioned.
This may sound familiar to you. Continue reading
What Seth Godin inadvertently taught me about theology.
Theology has always been something that has interested me from an early age. I’ve always been fascinated by the stories that lie within the pages of the Bible. Whether tales of giant fish swallowing people, a man and his family building a giant boat/hotel for a bunch of animals or Jesus literally getting the party started by making wine out of water, the stories in the Bible have had me hooked for my entire life.
They’re insane, yet captivating and will always entertain. Continue reading
Who are the real heroes?
A black sportsman made an advert with Nike and some white people are pissed. So pissed they’re burning their shoes. Some even while wearing them. They’re so mad there is no time to waste removing their shoes first.
They’re being applauded but of course, protest is only good when you agree with the method of protesting. Quietly taking a knee is deeply offensive but burning something that could easily be donated to a homeless person or a charity working with veterans is entirely appropriate it seems.
We are deeply divided.
The Joy of faithfully being pissed off.
Being raised in church in Northern Ireland is a fairly unique experience that sometimes feels like a million miles away from the ideas around faith that I hold now.
The Bible belt of the UK, Northern Ireland has always had religion running through public life. I once heard a statistic that sounds just likely enough to be true, that it’s believable but still insane enough to still be dubious about. That there are more Christians in a 50 miles radius from Belfast per capita than anywhere in the world.
How true this is I’m not entirely sure but it’s believable enough that I couldn’t say it was ridiculous altogether.
Either way, religion permeates everything. Politics, schooling, laws. You name it, religion probably has a part to play.
There does however seem to be a shift occurring in the public life in Northern Ireland where religion is concerned.
Why Chris Rock is right about not going to church.
According to Chris Rock, it requires much more faith to not go to church than it does to go. We believe that God needs our help. That’s sacrilegious according to Chris. That’s not faith.
You go to Church because you don’t trust God, he says.
Could he be right? That the reason most of us attend Church is because we don’t really trust God. That we need to show Him that we’re serious about all this stuff? Continue reading
Inner Authority – Real Life Examples of Using The Tools.
I care a lot about what people think of me. Most of us do. It’s not entirely a bad thing as it’s partly what keeps us from becoming Sociopaths.
But most of the time it can be a negative thing. Continue reading
How Atheism can save your faith.
Mike McHague, or as some of you may know him, Science Mike, tweeted the following a few weeks ago.
“Every Christian should become an Atheist at least once in their life.” Continue reading
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