In further contemplating last week’s post about being spiritually militant—of fighting evil in the spiritual realm—the word jihad comes to mind. Jihad, originating from Islam, has some specific meanings and one that is more general: In a literal sense, the idea of a holy war repels me. The various inquisitions and crusades, primarily during the […]
When at a business convention, I once spouted off a grand sounding idea, but it was really a bad suggestion that warranted immediate rejection. Yet I proclaimed it with passion and the air of authority (I had just finished speaking on the subject, and this new added thought added to the discussion.) I presented my […]
It’s fun to be in the company of likeminded individuals. It’s comfortable to hang out with people similar to us. But are fun and comfortable, necessarily good things? Do they promote personal growth and advance understanding? Being with people like us?—uniform or at least similar in perspective—is a homogeneous experience. The opposite of homogeneous is […]
I recently listened to some people talk about spiritual matters. Their language perplexed me. While some of their expressions fit within my biblical worldview, other utterings did not. I resist labeling people, but labels can aid in understanding, even though they’re more likely to produce misunderstanding. I wondered if they operated within a New Age […]
By Bob Hostetler (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)A book bearing the instruction to “quit going to church” might strike some church-going folk as a text to avoid, one surely full of disrespectful thoughts or even heresy. This is not so with Bob Hostetler’s book. Bob pens his work, not as one who has dismissed church attendance […]