Are your religious leaders teaching and preaching racism or bigotry? Misogyny? Persecution of people who are “different,” like homosexuals, transsexuals, and others in the LGBTQ+ community? If so, you should know that that’s not Christianity. Are your religious leaders telling you that Christians should seek political power? Wealth? Laws that Read more…
John 3:16 famously says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” In my teenage years, before I became a Christian, Christians would quote John 3:16 and urge me to “just believe” Read more…
In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church allowed itself to become corrupt. It had an incessant need for money, and this led to many abuses, such as the selling of Church offices, such as that of bishop. Since this resulted in Church leaders often being selected for their wealth Read more…
Some Christian denominations refuse to allow women to be ordained as priests, pastors, or ministers, while other denominations have no such prohibitions—and some are divided on the issue.[1] Those who refuse ordination to women point to scriptures such as 1 Timothy 2:11-12[2] and 1 Corinthians 14:33-35,[3] in which the apostle Paul seems Read more…
I recently saw a little brochure—what we used to call a “tract” when I was a baby Christian—that said, “Eternal Life is a Free Gift.” Well, yes. And no. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Read more…
There seems to be a lot of hate going around these days—hatred toward people who are “different,” hatred toward political opponents, and even hatred toward friends or family members for a variety of reasons. But Christians must have no room in their hearts for such hatred. We are called to Read more…
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he famously said “whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other toward him also.” (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29 is similar) Did Jesus actually mean that we should take that literally? That when someone wrongs us, we should do nothing in response? The Read more…
Christians talk a lot about God’s mercy and grace, and with good reason. We all need that mercy and grace, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[1] But Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book The Cost of Discipleship, pointed out that God’s grace does not give Read more…