Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Telegraph]

The new form of worship, which removes words such as “Lord, he, his, him” and “mankind” from services, has been written by the church in an attempt to acknowledge that God is “beyond human gender”.
Episcopalian bishops have approved the introduction of more “inclusive” language, which deliberately removes references suggesting that God is of male gender.
Traditionalists have criticised the changes on the grounds that they smack of political correctness and because they believe they are not consistent with the teachings of the Bible. The alterations have been made to provide an alternative to the established 1982 Liturgy, which, like the Bible, refers to God as a man.
The new order of service, which can be used by priests if they have difficulties with a male God, has been produced by the church’s Liturgy Committee in consultation with the Faith & Order Board of General Synod and the College of Bishops.
The controversial changes were discussed at the church’s General Synod recently. The minutes of the synod reveal that female priests had asked why God was still referred to as a man.
The altered version of the 1982 Liturgy sees masculine pronouns removed when they refer to God and the new approach has even been extended to humans. For example, the word “mankind” has been taken out and replaced with “world”.
Some senior religious figures have objected to the new form of words. “It is political correctness,” said Rev Stuart Hall of the Scottish Prayer Book Society and Honorary Professor of Divinity at the University of St Andrews
“It is quite unnecessary. The word man in English – especially among scientists – is inclusive of both sexes.
“Those who try to minimise references to God as the Father and Christ as his Son have great difficulties, because the New Testament is shot through with these references.”

Read more here.

[From me]

What’s next: Jesus wasn’t God’s Son? When will this Political Correctness end?

[CNN]
If you’re the parent of a Christian teenager, Kenda Creasy Dean has this warning:
Your child is following a “mutant” form of Christianity, and you may be responsible.
Dean says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Translation: It’s a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem.
Dean is a minister, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of “Almost Christian,” a new book that argues that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity.
She says this “imposter” faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches.
“If this is the God they’re seeing in church, they are right to leave us in the dust,” Dean says. “Churches don’t give them enough to be passionate about.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Powerful article. It don’t think it is just teenagers. How many cultural Christians are there? There ought to be something radically different about us verses the world. Our actions should be different. Our language should be different….OUR lives should be different.

[HTR News]
“Bye-bye church. We’re busy.” That’s the message teens are giving churches today.

Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.

“Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook,” says Barna president David Kinnaman.

“Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It’s the age teens typically drop out,” says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. “A decade ago, teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They’re not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, ‘We don’t see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.’ ”

“I blame the parents,” who didn’t grow up in a church culture, says Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor at First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan.

Read more here.

[From me]

I’m sure there is a lot of blame to go around. But blaming parents only is stretching it. Having grown up in Youth Ministry and being a Youth Minister myself, I think it has more to do with hypocrisy that students see. When they see adults fighting in church over_____________ then they don’t want to have anything to do with that. Having edgy music or cool games doesn’t cut it. They can find that anywhere.

I’m still working with students now and what they want are authentic relationships. Age doesn’t matter if you treat them with respect and you are honest and authentic. Just my humble opinion.

What do you think?

[The Star.com]

St. Peter’s Anglican Church has long been known as an open and inclusive place.

So open, it seems, they won’t turn anyone away. Not even a dog.

That’s how a blessed canine ended up receiving communion from interim priest Rev. Marguerite Rea during a morning service the last Sunday in June.

According to those in attendance at the historical church at 188 Carlton St. in downtown Toronto, it was a spontaneous gesture, one intended to make both the dog and its owner – a first timer at the church — feel welcomed. But at least one parishioner saw the act as an affront to the rules and regulations of the Anglican Church. He filed a complaint with the reverend and with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto about the incident – and has since left the church.

Read more here.

[From me]

I want to know if the dog was sprinkled or dunked?

[Belief Net]
How many of the pastors and ministers in our churches no longer believe in God? That’s the question asked in “Preachers Who Are Not Believers,” a fascinating report by Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. Dennett, of course, is a cognitive scientist and prominent atheist. His book, Breaking the Spell, put him at the forefront of “new atheists” movement, along with Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.

The report offers five case studies of Christian ministers who no longer identify themselves as believers — but their churches don’t know it. They are secret atheists or agnostics who are still serving their congregations, teaching them about God and the Bible, and otherwise functioning as clergy.

Money quotes from three of them:

Darryl is a Presbyterian who claims to follow Jesus, but “…it is arguable whether I am also a ‘Christian.’…I reject the virgin birth. I reject substitutionary atonement. I reject the divinity of Jesus. I reject heaven and hell in the traditional sense, and I am not alone.” But he lives as a Christian anyway. “Whether there was a God or not, I would choose to live as if there was a God. Because I didn’t like the alternative.”

Darryl admits that he’s still in the ministry because it pays the bills. It’s how he makes a living. To admit his lack of beliefs would mean walking away from his only source of income.

Adam is a Church of Christ worship leader who lost his faith after reading books in which he thought atheists made better arguments than Christians. He talks about how he tried, as a reader fascinated with learning, to “be open and listen, and use my mind and reason.” He worries about what others would think if they knew how he’d changed. “Even if Christianity isn’t true, is it best to leave the people alone in their ignorance? …They’re happy, and they have hope in a life to come, and so it helps them through their suffering, which is a strong selling point of Christianity.”

How does he handle his role as a Sunday morning worship leader? “I see it as play acting. I see myself as taking on the role of a believer in a worship service, and performing. I know how to pray publicly…I love singing. [But] I don’t believe what I’m saying anymore in some of these songs.”

Jack, a Southern Baptist worship leader, fell into atheism after deciding to read through the Bible carefully as a way to get closer to his faith. It had the opposite effect. “I think most Christians have to be in a state of denial to read the Bible and believe it. Because there are so many contradicting stories.” He didn’t plan on becoming an atheist. “I didn’t even want to become an atheist. It’s just I had no choice if I’m being honest with myself.”

Jack admits that he’s still in the ministry because it’s his job. It puts food on the table. But he’s planning to leave as soon as he finds another way to support his family.

Read more here and here

You can read the whole report here.

[From me]

I think it is normal to have doubts and struggles. God knows I’ve had my share in the last few years. But for me the tough times we have gone through have driven me towards God not away from him. As I read the quotes from these ministers I’m amazed that they are still serving their churches for a “pay check.” I could make a whole lot more money outside the church and ministry. In fact, it is ministry that has brought financial hardship to our family. So why in the world would someone remain in ministry for money? Even if you don’t believe in God I would hope these clergy members had some integrity and would resign from their positions because they didn’t believe.