For the Southern Baptist Convention, Disaster Relief is a Calling →

It’s wonderful to see Christian relief workers — and Southern Baptists, especially — presented in a positive light.

"Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures."

Michael Spencer, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, on the coming evangelical collapse.

"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!"

Kurt Vonnegut

Stone tablet rocks biblical circles →

atheistramblings:

A tablet consisting of 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates a number of decades just before the claimed birth of Christ is causing a bit of a stir in biblical circles.

The tablet appears to speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days. If this is the meaning of the text that it will establish that the death and resurrection of a messiah figure was an established part of Jewish lore and not unique to Jesus.

The death and resurrection of a messiah figure was an established part of pagan lore as well. This tablet is rather interesting, but I doubt it will shake the faith of many Christians.