1. A central issue in Protestant circles is the stability of tithing. With the mobility and transitional nature of American Christians, churches are often uncertain that they can meet budget. A source of this problem is theological. Since Protestants have personalized salvation, the church becomes a unnecessary luxury. While the priesthood of all believers does seem to be “biblical,” the Roman Catholic understanding of salvation proves itself to insure church stability through the instability of personal salvation

If you're reading this blog, I assume two things about you: 1) You're interested in things related to Fuller Seminary, 2) You probably read other blogs, as well, at least some of which are religious in nature. In my own blog reading over the years, one subject I've seen discussed a few times regards the ordination of pastors (or priests, as appropriate). There are many out there who, seeking to ensure that pastors are a good fit for their denomination, argue that all those desiring to be ordained in a given denomination should be taught in schools related to that denomination

In my ethics class, we watched a documentary film called A Time for Burning about a small Lutheran congregation in the 1960s wrestling with issues of black integration. Most of the film involves the minister speaking with the black community and his white congregation, trying to convince them that face-to-face contact is the best approach to ease the tensions and deconstruct  racism

Christian reaction to the news of Christopher Hitchens’ death last night of complications due to cancer have certainly been mixed. Tweets jovially poking fun at the New Atheist read “ ‘Hitchens doesn’t exist anymore’—God.” Many more conservative Christians vindictively celebrate the death of someone whom they probably felt had backed them into a corner along with the other three (self-titled) Horsemen of New Atheism (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett.) Now one is gone

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }p.W5-Responsessingle, li.W5-Responsessingle, div.W5-Responsessingle { margin: 6pt 0in 12pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.W5-Responsesstacked, li.W5-Responsesstacked, div.W5-Responsesstacked { margin: 6pt 0in 12pt 0