Many Religious Controversies

Memorial Garden at St. Mark's
Originally uploaded by Darrell

Centenary College of Louisiana recently invited Erik Wielenburg, an avowed atheist, to speak on campus. It came to my attention during a recent gathering at St.Mark's. Since Centenary has ties to the Methodist church, this has caused much hand-wringing and e-mail hysteria from insecure Christians among us. Wielenberg was the second non-believer to speak at Centenary this semester. A member of a local Methodist congregation got a little worked up, sending a mass e-mail asserting that parents send their students to "A Christian Methodist college for a reason." He went on, in part, "I refuse to believe that this reason is to brainwash their kids into believing that their is no God. We must do something about this. Please contact the president of Centenary, the board members, the alumni, the administration, and your church. I attended the atheists event last month and witnessed first hand how atheist spread their "word." Several students purchased her book after the event. I pray that none of those students turned against God that night."
Okay, let's not contact anyone. If these impressionable students are so insufficiently grounded in their faith that they will be "turned against God" by sitting through a couple of lectures, something has gone wrong over the last 18-20 years. This semester didn't have a lot to do with it.
The school's chaplain was compelled to respond with another mass e-mail explaining the bold concept of a free exchange of ideas. It was smart, well reasoned and right on target, saying parents have a duty to students to "Ground them in faith, engage them in reflection and in the exchange of ideas and then, when you send them to us, do all you can to encourage them to participate in the Christian worship, fellowship, study and service opportunities which we offer at Centenary."
My son has been offered a scholarship to attend Centenary. Thanks to this letter from the chaplain, I'm feeling really good about it.

Barack Obama
Originally uploaded by jurvetson

There's also a freaky line of thought creeping around the internet about Barack Obama. The mainstream media is exploring his religious beliefs because a lot of people believe he is a Muslim. He claims to be a Christian. There's a quiet undercurrent of discussion in the blogosphere that Obama may be the Antichrist. Barack Obama the Antichrist? That's way too deep for me, but I've had three people say something about it to me in the last week.
The only response I have is, "well, this is not the first time I've heard that."
Isn't it strange? I'm hearing this odd run of comments that flabbergast me beyond reasonable response. Hang onto your hat. Things are getting weird.

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I Guess I'm Going to Hell

Pope Benedict's beer
Originally uploaded by Condemned Soul

Pope Benedict is from Germany, and an e-mail prankster has shown us his vision of inevitable changes in Holy Communion. I have to admit I laughed out loud.
This comes in the wake of a spirited discussion I had recently with a buddy who attends a local Assembly of God church. He asked me, with a straight face, if I believe Catholics are Christians. Days earlier a close friend who attends the same church asked me if it's true that Catholics are taught NOT to read the Bible. I wonder what they're teaching out there.
My response to each question was about the same. It was something along the lines of "That question, quite frankly, is so utterly preposterous that it borders on incomprehensible." I grew up Catholic and suffered significant ridicule because of it from the bigoted mouths of some of my Southern Baptist relatives.
There's a lot of disinformation being taught in "Christian" churches, but this is not my fight.
My lifelong best friend, a devout Roman Catholic, saw these mocked-up Pope images and wrote to me, "Just to let you know, I’m praying for your soul!!!"
In the end, that's really all I can ask for.

Pope Benedict XVI
Originally uploaded by drew_073

By the way, the Holy Father will make his first trip to the United States as Pope in April. He will celebrate mass in two baseball stadiums, the brand new Washington Nationals Park and Yankee stadium. Attendance won't be an issue. 46,000 seats will be available in Washington, D.C., and 57,000 will be available at New York City. Demand for tickets so far is essentially tripling capacity.
There may actually be scalpers. It would be pure profit, too. The Church won't charge admission for mass!
Since we're having Church With The Big Guy at the ballpark, beer and pretzels might be appropriate after all. I mean, who says he can only consecrate wine and wafers? Peanuts and Cracker Jacks can't be far behind.
Sing along: Take me out to the ball game, Take me out to the mass..."

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