John Shore wrote a very interesting (and pragmatic) piece over the weekend. Before you read the whole thing, you might want to first check out the story of his “sudden conversion” from rabid anti-Christian to Christian.
His weekend piece deals with a Christian perspective that includes logic, intelligence, and compassion. Among the bullets, these are some of my favorites:
- Anyone seeking to mix church and state has failed to understand the nature and proper role of either.
- It is much more reasonable — and certainly more compassionate — to hold that throughout history God chose to introduce himself in different ways into different culture streams than it is to believe that there is only one correct way to understand and worship God, and that the punishment for anyone who chooses any but that way is to spend all of eternity having the living flesh seared off of his or her bones.
- God’s will and intention is to forgive and teach us, not judge and punish us.
- The only person who should be actively endeavoring to convert non-Christians into Christians is God.
- There were no dinosaurs on Noah’s ark, and Jesus didn’t have a pet stegosaurus. Anyone who believes the earth is only 6,000 years old needs to stand up, put down his or her hot dog, and come eat dinner at the grown-up’s table.
- The single most telling indicator of a person’s moral character has nothing to do with how he or she defines or worships God, and everything to do with how he or she treat others.