Really???

Okay — I’m a glutton for punishment.  From time to time, I’ll listen to the sermons of a local pastor.  This little tidbit is from a recent Sunday morning message…

“I wouldn’t do anything good unless Jesus lived in me — and I mean that literally.”

Wow…  If the only thing keeping you from a raping, pillaging, homicidal killing spree is the idea that an invisible man in the sky is keeping tabs on you — by all means — keep that belief.  However, I think you’ve forfeited the right to claim your morality is greater than those of us who are able to refrain from such things without the promise of eternal reward, or the threat of eternal torment.  We do good simply because we want to.

The REAL A-Team

Introducing the REAL A-Team: Richard “Hannibal” Dawkins, Sam “Faceman” Harris, Neil “B.A.” Tyson (Agnostic), and Michael “Howling Mad” Shermer.

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? (William Lane Craig vs Richard Carrier)

No.  There is no reason to believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and I think Richard Carrier does an excellent job of explaining why in this debate against William Lane Craig.

Listen to Reason – Bryan Steeksma (Lyrics)

Good lyrics, good production quality, good song…

The Clergy Project

I’ve been meaning to write about the The Clergy Project for a while, but up until now have not had the time to write something thoughtful to give it the attention it deserves.  Many of you have probably never heard of the project, so allow me to fill you in with the nuts and bolts from The Clergy Project website:

“The Clergy Project is a confidential online community for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs.  Currently, the community’s 185 plus members use it to network and discuss what it’s like being an unbelieving leader in a religious community. The Clergy Project’s goal is to support members as they move beyond faith.”

Basically, The Clergy Project is an online community that is comprised of  ”alumni” – former members of the clergy who are no longer believers, and no longer active in ministry (I fall into this category), and “active” – current members of the clergy in ministry who are no longer believers.  The goal of the project is to help active, unbelieving clergy transition out of their ministry roles in a way that minimizes damage in their personal and professional lives.  Many of these members of the “active” group face significant challenges in terms of job transition, as well as holding together their personal friendships and familial relationships.

The project’s history can be traced back to a preliminary study that was conducted and published by Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola back in 2010.  The study looked at individuals in the pulpit who were no longer believers, and was titled, “Preachers Who Are Not Believers.”  Out of this study and further discussion between Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Daniel Dennett, Linda LaScola, and Richard Dawkins – The Clergy Project began in March 2011 by invitation-only after a generous donation from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.  Since it’s inception, The Clergy Project has grown to nearly 200 members, with new members being added on a regular basis.

My transition from believer to unbeliever was not nearly as difficult as the situations faced by many “actives” in The Clergy Project. I hadn’t been in full-time vocational ministry as a pastor since 2002, though my wife and I were active in our church, and had recently agreed to take the reigns of the worship ministry.  Over the course of a few months, the mental barriers and cognitive dissonance I was experiencing began to tip the scales bringing about my de-conversion.  It is a strange feeling to to lead a worship song on a Sunday morning that says, “You Are In Control” and to realize you no longer believe that.  Shortly thereafter, my wife and I backed out of our roles in the church and have enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday ever since.

Of course, I was fortunate in that my wife was on the same journey that I was.  Others are not so lucky, and often a member of the  The Clergy Project not only faces the breaking-apart of personal friendships, but also of marriages and relationships with other family members.  It is reasons such as these that make the existence of The Clergy Project so vital to the success and mental well-being of members of the clergy as they transition their way out of the ministry.

If you are a member of the clergy, or former member of the clergy who is now an unbeliever (atheist, agnostic, skeptic, etc.), I would encourage you to apply for membership in the The Clergy Project.  Your identity is kept secret (you’re assigned a pseudonym), and there is a stringent screening process to ensure only former or active clergy who are no longer believers are granted membership.  Not only does this enable you to get the help and support you need as you transition, but it also enables you to lend a helping hand to others who are in a similar situation to you.

I’ll part with a suggestion to listen to a “sermon” that was delivered by Jerry DeWitt, who holds the distinction of being the first “graduate” of the The Clergy Project.  Jerry delivered his message on Surviving Identity Suicide at the recent American Atheists convention, and if you’ve never heard an ex-pentecostal, southern preacher deliver a sermon to a bunch of atheists,  you’re in for a real treat!

Quotable: Edward Tabash

“If you take a majority of the American people and give them the opportunity to live in a universe where there is a god, but no life after death — they would choose a universe where there’s life after death, irrespective of god.”

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight

I’m in a “book club” with four other guys who are all believers, and we tend to read books on Christian Theology, which always makes for good discussion with me being an apostate and all.  One of the things I like most about the group is that we are free to disagree with one another (even on core issues), and yet we can all still walk away as friends at the end of the night.  Our most recent book is The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight.

Let me start off by saying that McKnight is very easy to read — that is to say –he writes well.  While I of course disagree with his position and the conclusions he comes to, I didn’t have to trudge my way through the book like others I’ve read, so that was a bonus.  Other than being pleasant to read, however, I can’t say much else in favor of the book or McKnight’s conclusions, and I’ll tell you why.

Scot, like other authors such as Brian McLaren, and Rob Bell, seem to be under the impression that Christianity has gotten the gospel and major tenants of the Christian faith wrong for the last 2000 years.  In essence, Jesus set things on one trajectory, and then Christians through the ages highjacked things and went off in a direction Jesus never intended.  They then call believers to return to the true gospel as proclaimed by Christ, in McKnight’s case — The King Jesus Gospel — the completion of Israel’s story in the person of Jesus.  I think there is a major problem in this line of thinking, whether it’s McKnight, or anyone else making the claim that the church has had it wrong for so long.  That problem is the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:13, Jesus said, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…” and in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  This presents a tremendous problem for McKnight and others who want to say the Church has gotten it wrong for so long, especially as the Holy Spirit is supposed to be indwelling and leading all believers.  At best, the Holy Spirit has been asleep behind the wheel for the last 2000 years, and at worst, he is purposely slamming the Church into the guard rails in an attempt to drive Christianity off of a cliff.  I tend to think people have the best intentions in pursuing what they believe to be their god, and the same goes for Christians down through the ages.  If things have gone so far off the track, and so much destruction and misery has occurred because of the good, yet misguided, intentions of the church — is this not a case of asking for a fish and getting a snake, or asking for bread and getting a stone (Matthew 9:7-11)?   McKnight acknowledges the places in history where the church has flown off the rails, but he seems to miss the culpability of the Holy Spirit who was supposed to be leading and guiding the believers.

Now of course the believer, including McKnight, can claim that those people were listening to their own flesh and not the Holy Spirit throughout the ages, but this just loops back around to the same problem.  How does Scot know that he’s not listening to his flesh in the direction he’s going?  What makes him so sure the confirming voice he hears with his theological conclusions is the Holy Spirit and not his own?  It would be quite arrogant for McKnight to claim that he knows it’s the Holy Spirit and those other people are wrong, though theologians of course have done this all through the ages.  This is the problem with a deity that chooses to play hide and seek instead of revealing itself plainly to claim its worship from everyone.  The most likely conclusion is not that the Holy Spirit is asleep at the wheel, or that he’s trying to run Christianity off of a cliff — it’s that he doesn’t exist.  The claims  of authors like McKnight or McLaren that the Church has had it wrong for two millennia I think hammer this point home better than anything, and Occam’s razor dictates this is the most reasonable position to come to.  I would, however, certainly like to hear Scot’s response to this critique.