1. Herman Cain, presidential candidate on the Republican side, believes that towns and communities should have the right to prevent the construction of mosques in their neighborhood. Very interesting. Would a Buddhist church be okay? How about an ashram? Or a center for white supremacists?

2. I’m a big believer in keeping your religion/faith to yourself, but Greg Stier wrote a piece in the Christian Post regarding “Bible believers are obsessed with converting people from their belief systems to Christianity. If they’re not they should be. Here are 3 reasons why:” And he lists them:

• Jesus told us to. Stier uses Luke 24:47-49 as his reference, but I think there are clearer examples. Heck, Jesus is always out telling people to spread the word.
• It’s good news. “Proseltyizing gives us a pedicure in a way we could never imagine because our feet are carrying good news to everyone we meet.”
• It saves people from hell.

Personally, if I were starting a religion, I would include lots of orders to proseltyze in my manual and mandatory 2-year missions and any other such built-ins I could think of that would help grow and perpetuate my religion.

3. 74% of Americans believe in heaven and 60% believe in hell. Who goes where? Kim Lawton has a nice summary piece.

The post Tuesday Smorgasbord first appeared on What He Said: The Words of Jesus Christ.

It’s still uncool today. Help the poor? Feed the starving? Look at the rage over welfare, social security, and other entitlement programs. Look at how this country approaches immigration. No, it’s lift yourself up by your bootstraps, look out for #1, and be damned with all the rest.

“So what are the lessons for us as followers of Christ? In a 21st Century quest for Hipster Christianity we must remember that the call of Christ is the call to be uncool. It’s the call to pick up our cross and carry a radical and sometimes unpopular message to a broken world. It’s the call to embrace Jesus’ as the narrow gate, though it may appear narrow-minded and exclusive, but to be open-hearted and handed when it comes to the hurting and hopeless.”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

The post Uncool first appeared on What He Said: The Words of Jesus Christ.