12/14/12 - another horrible day. A 20 year old man walks into an elementary school and opens fire. Young children and teachers killed before the young man takes his own life. American TV rushes to cover the story - to get the first break in the story, to show the first pictures of people weeping. At the same time around the world a man walks into a school in China stabs 22 young children. A small blurb is put out in America. This leads to ask the question - how narrow minded are we in America that we can only focus on stuff in our own culture. Can't both groups mourn together? Can't we pray for both groups together? Can't we offer prayer vigils for both? I sometimes want to tell people who say that they don't understand why America isn't loved around the world that these are part of the reason why. We think the whole planet revolves around us. We think God has only favored America and we teach that even if we don't realize it when we say the phrase "God Bless America." Didn't God create the whole world? Didn't God create every person? Isn't God bigger then just one country? My prayer is that America and the American church will learn that the words they speak carries so much energy with them. I pray that we will learn to speak in terms that don't limit God but show that God is in "all places, at all times."
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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