What does it mean to be ‘Christian’ or ‘christian’? In the same way that Islam is fractured and battling about what it means to be ‘Muslim’ or ‘muslim,’ the election of Donald Trump as the President of these United States has brought into the spotlight the fractured state of Christianity that Protestants and Catholics are experiencing. The same could be argued for those who are Jewish, whether practicing the faith or not. Reporting on a Pew Research document, the Washington Post, note that about a third of our citizens think to be a real American one must be Christian.
It was good to bump into a blog post by a colleague, Rev. Jan Linn. He blogs at Thinking Against the Grain at linnposts.com
Why I Believe Ministers Like Adam Hamilton Are Wrong
Rev. Jan Linn, Feb 8, 2017
That desire to be a pastor to everyone is rooted in his belief that “the defining mark of the Christian life is not being right politically. It is expressing love.”
That is a point of view few Christians would disagree with, but its application to the political divide in our country and in Hamilton’s congregation is far from simple.
More than that, expressing love can lead ministers like Hamilton to believe, as he says he tells other ministers, that influencing people takes priority over irritating them. As I will show, I think that is a false dichotomy.
When I turned 40, I began waking up at 5am for no good reason. Most days I’m awake at that hour, though I don’t always get out of bed and stay awake. I’ve begun starting my Monday morning reading. I do this most days, as well as a bit of writing on whatever project is on the list, but I’m giving Monday morning more time. I am a bit dyslexic so I read slowly. Some of my reading are books. I’m currently working through these:
Most of my reading each day, probably like you, is my feed silo of news sources via Internet Sites on my computer, my Twitter feed, or pushed from sites to the device I’m carrying. A new feature of my blog for 2017 is the short list of articles I’ve read, Monday Morning Reading.
Rev. Dr. William Tucker was the Chancellor at Texas Christian University when I was a student. It seems like a long time ago now. Anyway, during his commencement address the year I graduated he reminded students that we had been educated to “know how to ask questions” and to “read many sources of information” on our way to making decisions about life and our lives in community. That is sage advice for every generation and particularly for a time such as this. So, here is the first edition of Monday Morning Reading. This is the list of articles I completely read and does not include those I skimmed.
The title is the link.
The Provocative Faith of Lady Gaga
By Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, The Washington Post
10 Journalism brands where you will find real facts rather than alternative-facts
By Paul Glader, Forbes
4 Ideas Changing the Church for the Better
Growing Young, Relevant
Trump, Clinton Voters Divided In Their Main Source for Election News
By Jefferey Gottfried, Michael Barthel, and Amy Mitchell, Pew Research Center
I Am a Priest, and This Is Why I am Pro-Choice
By Reverend Broderick L. Greer, teenVogue
My dad predicted Trump in 1985 — it’s not Orwell, he warned, it’s Brave New World
By Andrew Postman, the guardian
A Return to National Greatness
By David Brooks, New York Times Opinion
and finally, for anyone in Oklahoma (though I trust you are keeping up with your State legislators)
What Your Legislators Think Is Important
Tulsa World