One day as I was driving I got stopped at a red light. A truck next to me was full of four guys. The guy closest to my window started waving at me and asked me to roll down my window. Now generally I don't do this but decided to humor the guy. The guy was in need of directions to a gentlemen's club. I leaned out my window to inform him that he had just asked a minister (female minister at that) for directions to a gentlemen's club. He immediately went red in the face and started to say that they weren't going to go watch. His friends had been there last night and had left his wallet (like that's really any better). I was nice and gave them directions to the other side of town and then said I'd pray for them. It's not like I hide the fact that I'm clergy, there's a big clergy sticker on the back window. When you're asking for directions to the gentlemen's club please consider who you're asking. What an interesting encounter with those in this world.
In a conversation with a more conservative Christian then me (take in mind I call myself a bed-wetting liberal and I’m also a big time Process Theologian) the person started rambling off scripture quotes (proof texting really) to make a point. I have never claimed to be a great memorizer of anything. And even though I have read the Bible many times and own many copies of the Bible, I am still not a person who can just pull out scripture references in mid conversation. I do have several verses that I turn to and love dearly but I can’t tell you word for word what John 2:5 or Ruth 1:4 says. This got me thinking, why do Christians really feel the need to qualify their faith based on the amount of scripture that they can recite from memory? While it may be very handy to be able to quote scripture in a variety of situations, I believe that this can be dangerous. Proof texting (pulling scripture, from any religion, to support an argument without careful and learned consideration for its cont
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