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by on 2.22.08

a sad, sad, story

Christianity Today linked to An Atheist in the Pulpit from Psychology Today. It is lengthy, depressing, sad, and hopeless. It isn’t unfamiliar – many people, raised in Christian homes, or involved in Christian ministries of various kinds, make utter shipwrecks of their lives.

I can’t really say much about the article, but I think you should read it. This is the last paragraph:

When you’ve lost God, how do you fill the void?

“That’s what I’m wrestling with now,” says James McAllister. “I don’t have anyone to talk to in my heart. The prayers I used to say, I simply don’t bother anymore. I obviously regard prayer to be silly, even. But it was a comforting place that I could go. I’ve let that go. And there is a void. And hopefully it can be replaced just by appreciating being alive.”

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Filed Under: Article Review
by on 12.19.07

on Piper’s advocacy of sinning less often

A recent Piper article is eating away at my mind. I really am appalled by it, but have hesitated to post. It is quite easy to be too critical, especially when it comes to eminently critique-able people like Piper.

The article, Gutsy Guilt, was published in the October issue of Christianity Today. In order to understand my criticism, you may have to read the article, but I will do my best to represent the article and what bothers me about it.

In his introduction, Piper expresses a concern that young Christians can lose their ‘radical’ vision for ministry because of failing to deal with the guilt of sexual failure. [BTW, Piper regularly uses words like ‘radical’ and ‘passion’, words that really have no place in a Christian context, but that is another pet peeve and another post.]

By failure, Piper doesn’t mean merely the use of pornography. No, he says, “The great tragedy is not masturbation or fornication or pornography.” I am assuming that he doesn’t mean the adultery kind of fornication, but his article doesn’t make that distinction clear. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Article Review, Fundamentalism, Separation