Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Are Saturday Night Services Biblical?

I received this question last week and felt it made for a good entry on the blog:

“Today many churches have a Saturday night service. Some have added such a service because they are at capacity and need room for more people to attend. Others may do it to ‘attract a different group of people.’ Where does the Bible stand on this? My background has always led me to be anti-Saturday night service. However, I'm having trouble knowing if my position is merely because ‘that's how it is’ or because it's based on the Bible. What do you think?”

 It definitely is something we are seeing more and more. I think the question of the Bible's words on Sunday services is really just the first half of the question (though obviously a pretty important half!). I would suggest that Sunday-only worship is an example of common practice being codified into law over time.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Is the Vaccine Resistance Related to the Sexual Revolution?

In recent months, there has been a lot of talk about vaccination. It began with an outbreak of the measles in California during last year’s holiday season, and has extended into this year. If you look at this fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), you will see that 2014 was actually the worst year for measles in more than a decade, and by a considerable margin. However, if 2015 maintains its pace, it will be even worse.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Is Barack Obama a Christian?

This was a question asked of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican and one of the frontrunners for the Presidential nomination in 2016. Oddly enough, Walker’s answer was to say, “I don’t know.” I say his answer was odd because it has been used to create some political theater by his opponents. Media outlets like the LA Times  have expressed righteous indignation at the governor’s unwillingness to call the President a Christian without qualification. Given the propensity of many in media to be dismissive of religious faith, this is rather ironic. As David Burge put it on Twitter, “Media: How dare Scott Walker doubt Barack Obama's faith in Scott Walker's ridiculous invisible sky beard man.” This reaction was fairly predictable, so it is surprising that Walker answered as he did. One would expect a politician to take the safer road and say something like, “I do not question the President’s faith. The problem is his ideas on governing.”

I have to give Walker credit, though, for answering honestly and shedding light on the misconceptions of Christianity current in secular culture. There is a world of difference between identifying as a Christian and being one. My hope today is to point out some of those differences in an effort to clear up the confusion and help people understand what it really means to belong to the church.