One of the frustrations of writing my poor, little blog is that sometimes I write something that I think could be really important to people and because of my tiny reach into the blogosphere, it passes by mostly unnoticed. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay on what I called New Fundamentalism which was one of those posts. See, over the years I have often been accused of not taking the bible seriously or treated as suspect by fundamentalist/conservative evangelical types. They disapprove of my rejection of literal creationism or of the subordination of women or some such sacred cow. But as anyone who has read the things I write here can tell, I take the bible very seriously. I have devoted a ridiculous amount of time to study, prayer and research in my quest to understand the bible better. The real problem, in my opinion, is that traditional fundamentalists take the wrong things literally. So, I pulled out a list of often quoted but usually ignored verses which I proposed be taken literally by all believers, regardless of denomination or doctrine. But, like a lot of what I write, it mostly disappeared into the vapor of cyberspace.
I think that this matter is too important to allow it to just disappear like that without a bit of a fight. So, I have created a page dedicated just to this list of fundamental bible verses. It is called A New Fundamentalism. All it consists of is the essay and list of scripture verses I posted earlier. I’m simply looking for people to “Like” the essay and if they choose, pass the link around. Perhaps in a few days, I will be able to put together a button for people to put on their own blog pages to link to the site. I have also created a facebook page for the site that you can like and share with your friends.
This isn’t an attempt to compete with or displace anything. I really do think that the verses I collected represent an excellent starting point for anyone who is serious about their faith – from a homeschooling, creationism, complementarian fundamentalist Christian to a liberal miracle doubting, gay marriage supporting believer. As for the rest, God holds truth. We will continue to disagree about many things, but as one of the verses listed says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:35. At this point, the body of Christ is known for many things, but love is rarely at the top of the list. And if love is not at the top of the list, then the world is right to wonder whose disciples we’re supposed to be.
So, please head over to the New Fundamentalism site and check it out. If you can abide by what is said there, like it, tweet it, share it! But let’s try not to let these vital fundamentals of our faith disappear into cyberspace.

Last night I
Those of you who are interested in such things have no doubt heard about the latest Pew survey on Religion in America which was released last week. It shows an America which is deeply religious yet growing ever more open to other faith traditions and less and less dogmatic about their own. In particular, there is a lot of fluidity to people’s beliefs. 44% say that they have switched religions, denominations or gained or dropped faith in their lifetime. The mainline Protestant denominations are continuing their downward spiral while non-denominational churches continue to show modest gains. One of the studies co-authors, John Green,
After putting up 4 fairly long posts in less than 24 hours yesterday, I need to take some time to attend to the kiddies and my gardens. But I’d hate the leave my minions without their Upside Down World fix (that’s a joke, btw
Brian McLaren spoke recently at a conference taking place at Willow Creek Community Church and shared something which I find fascinating. Back in the 1970s, McLaren volunteered as a youth minister. He asked the kids in the group to make a list of what the pressing issues at their churches were. They came up with things like contemporary worship music and speaking in tongues. Then he asked them to make a list of what the pressing issues facing the world were. Their list included typical 1970s concerns like nuclear war, communism and famine. McLaren points out that there was no overlap between the two lists. The problem as he saw it was that as he was leading young people to Christ, they would get drawn into the first list of concerns and become less and less involved in the issues of the wider world.