coffee talk with Drew and Fred ::01::

We’re setting a goal of updating this blog weekly with content and discussion that we didn’t cover at the retreat.  Please partake in the conversation via comment, and check back each week for more.

We’ll start with the book Unchristian.

Christians are described as anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of other faiths, and confusing in the book.  Which one do you most resonate with?

Sheltered and Judgmental (a conglomeration of the two).  It could be said that one leads to the other.  When you are out of touch with reality it can lead to ridiculous judgments about that reality of which you are out of touch.

The cliche goes: you need to be ‘in’ the world, not ‘of’ the world.  really?

1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world, to adstain from the sinful desires, which war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Peter wries to Christ followers who are scattered to other nations thus making the recipients of this letter literal ‘aliens’ from a citizen standpoint and strangers none the less.

I fear that we have taken this alienation upon ourselves.  Christians alienate themselves from others (unchristians) and continue to allow the chasm between us become greater.  Then they look across the chasm and judge them for their ‘acts of sinfulness’.

Let’s not forget the part of this passage, “live such good lives AMONG the pagans”.  It implies that we ought to coexist and inspire them to glorify God.

How can one be ‘not of this world’ if one is so out of touch with this world to know what that means?