MetaFilter posts tagged with Christian and evangelical

"I am done making excuses for the pro-life movement."

flex — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:01:46 -0800

How I Lost Faith In The Pro-Life Movement: "What I want to share here is how I came to this realization. And if you, reader, are one of those who opposes abortion because you believe it is murder and you want to save the lives of unborn babies, well, I hope to persuade you that the pro-life movement is not actually your ally in this, that you have been misled, and that you would be more effective in decreasing the number of abortions that occur if you were to side with pro-choice progressives. If this is you, please hear me out before shaking your head." The author, Libby Anne:

"As a brief introduction, I was raised in a large homeschooling family influenced by the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. I grew up an evangelical Christian, though with some fundamentalist aspects. I found my beliefs challenged in college and am today an atheist and a feminist... ...If you’re just here because you liked my article on the pro-life movement, I’d invite you to stick around because I have several followup posts already planned and in the works, including posts tentatively called “Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion, or Anti-Choice? Sorting through the Labels,” “What Being Pro-Life Would Look Like,” and “Science, Young Earth Creationism, and the Pro-Life Movement.”"

These are her follow-up posts since this piece "went viral" a week and a half ago: *A Response to Objections on My Pro-Life Movement Post *Seven Recent Articles on Abortion Worth Reading *More on Laws and Abortion: A Response to Marc of "Bad Catholic" (another blog on Patheos) *If You Don’t Want a Baby, Just Don’t Have Sex? *Okay Then, Let's Talk About Natural Family Planning The rebuttals so far on Bad Catholic: *How I Lost Faith In The Pro-life Movement: Rebuttal Up In Hurrrrr (Part 1) *All Banning Abortion Does Is Make It Unsafe (Rebuttal Part 2) *Does Contraception Reduce the Abortion Rate? (Rebuttal Part 3)

"I went from God loves everybody to God saves everybody to God is in everybody."

zarq — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:47:58 -0800

From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader. Jerry DeWitt is a former Pentecostal pastor in the evangelical parish of DeRidder, Louisiana who slowly lost his religious faith. Last Fall, he went public with his atheism, committing what he calls "identity suicide," and instantly becoming "the most disliked person in town." Since then, Mr. DeWitt's lost his job, his wife, his community and may be losing his house, but is still persevering and working to help others who find themselves in similar circumstances. Mr. DeWitt is the executive director of Recovering From Religion, who also run The Secular Therapist Project, which connects people in need to therapists who do not "allow their religious, spiritual or supernatural beliefs to inform their therapeutic approach." He is also the first openly-declared atheist "graduate" of The Clergy Project, (previously) a confidential online community for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs. More on Mr. DeWitt from the Washington Post: "Pastor’s loss of faith started with loss of hell." Podcast Interviews * Living After Faith * The Angry Atheist. Videos of his Appearances * On his transition from Pastor to Atheist * At the Gathering of the Fellowship of Freethought in Dallas, 12/11: Thanksgiving vs. Tebowing * At the Oklahoma Atheists and the UCO Skeptics, 2/15/12, Parts 1, 2, 3 * Another talk from 2/7/12.

'Biblical Womanhood' A year of living by the book

Blasdelb — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:03:19 -0800

As an evangelical Christian, Rachel Held Evans often heard about the importance of practicing "biblical womanhood," but she didn't quite know what that meant. Everyone she asked seemed to have a different definition. Evans decided to embark on a quest to figure out how to be a woman by the Bible's standards. For one year, she has followed every rule in the Old and New Testaments. (FAQ) Her project is set to end today. Rachel Held Evans has also used her blog to actively champion gender equality and respect in Evangelical Christianity. Challenging homophobia, narrow views of womanhood, anti-intellectualism, and privilege, she has attracted attention from across the evangelical community. She has also been kicking ass wrestling with Evangelical heavyweights. This summer, she called out Mark Driscoll as a bully for his homophobic remarks on Facebook, prompting a response, and last month challenged best-selling author Donald Miller for writing that women are not the primary characters in their own "love stories". All this in a world in which there's an ongoing debate over whether husbands are the masters of their wives.

'These children don’t recognize the flags of their home countries, but they can all sing "Jesus Loves Me."'

zarq — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:08:21 -0800

The Evangelical Adoption Crusade "The adoption industry is on a steep decline after years of ethical problems and tightening regulations around the world." In the last two years evangelical advocacy for adoption has skyrocketed. Why? In Reclaiming Adoption, [Dan] Cruver bluntly declares, "The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel.”

Single in the Pulpit? Good luck to you!

ThePinkSuperhero — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:10:49 -0800

With Few Jobs, an Unmarried Pastor Points to Bias “Prejudice against single pastors abounds,” Mr. Almlie wrote in articles (Part 1, Part 2) he posted on a popular Christian blog site in January and February, setting off a wide-ranging debate online on a topic that many said has been largely ignored.

"...children which lie, must go to their father the devil, into everlasting burning." -- Cotton Mather

orthogonality — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:24:52 -0800

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

I'm so excited to have been invited to our nation’s capital.

amberglow — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:35:11 -0800

Stealth Evangelism? on the National Mall in DC --sponsored by Pepsi, too. People attending The DC Festival will not see any clue -- not even a simple cross -- to suggest the real nature of the gathering: broadcasting the message of Jesus Christ.
Bio of the organizer, Luis Palau, here, including this: “We began to realize that the traditional ‘crusade’ model - uniformed choir, the suits on the platform, and old, traditional hymns - wasn’t the way to go for us,” Palau says. “We want to attract the un-churched, and we want them to encounter God, and bring them all to Christ and to understand and to connect.”

Calling all Hot Women of the LORD!!!

loquacious — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:09:21 -0800

Hello, my name is Tamara! As you can probably tell, I'm a Christian who loves Jesus and cares for all humans, even the wicked. What you probably don't know is that I'm hot.

Getting Evangelicalism All Wrong

marcusb — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 09:48:24 -0800

How the left's fear of a right-wing Christian conspiracy gets George W. Bush -- and today's evangelical Christians -- all wrong. Alan Jacobs (more from him here and here) suggests that the idea that President Bush's evangelical Christianity has an impact on his politics is really a misunderstanding of Bush, fundamentalists, and evangelicals.