December 12, 2005
I Love It When ...
... people agree with me. From no less august a source than
The Evangelical Outpost:
I find that I just donÂ’t have the stomach for those old arguments anymore. IÂ’m still willing to discuss doctrinal differences. But now IÂ’m less sure that IÂ’m standing on the right side of scripture. Is the view heretical or likely to lead someone away from salvation? Then IÂ’ll fight it tooth-and-nail. If not, then IÂ’ll have to sit it out.
I'm probably still a bit more argumentative than Joe is, and I'll admit that I will slip and argue about trivia. I will always be more than willing to lend my opinion (wanted or not), and I will engage in healthy debate with my fellow Baptists about issues related to Baptist piety and polity. If I am challenged, I will respond in what I hope will be a civil and scholarly tone. But I won't be picking fights over millennial views. I won't go on a rampage against my Presbyterian friends over infant baptism. I reserve the right to think they are wrong, and they certainly have the right to be wrong (that was a JOKE, folks!!). And as I debate, I will try to learn from my "opponents," as I hope they will try to learn from me. Because that's the point of actual debate -- anything else becomes a fight.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at
07:58 PM
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December 10, 2005
A New Controversy
There's a brand new controversy brewing in the Godblogosphere, and it started at one of those blogging awards shows that I don't get nominated for.
The Blogs of Beauty contest is intended to "honor those blogs written by women who seek to bring the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ to the blogging world." Great idea. But it ran into a problem -- how do you decide which Godbloggers are actual Christians?
The lady who ran the contest recognized this, and established as a "Statement of Faith" the following:
I believe in the Godhead of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Holy Bible. I believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and my only means for the forgiveness of my sins and my salvation. My salvation is found in no one but Jesus Christ.
Orthodox, yet inclusive. Very good -- the contest wasn't meant to be denominationally specific, so this, I think, is a good list of criteria. And, after all, it ain't my contest, so the organizer can run it however she wants to.
But wherever two or three are gathered, there is disagreement. And problems. Maybe that's why I've never organized my own awards (except for the Pewies and the Clewies, both of which are awarded on an extremely subjective basis). And one of the winners (the Best Humor blog), is a Mormon blog. I'm not going to get into the arguement over whether the blog should have won -- none of my business, actually, and I've only ever read her blog today (interesting, and pretty well written, actually). But the whole thing has led to many, many posts concerning what a Christian blog is, and what it isn't.
So the question arises -- is Mormonism a Christian denomination?
more...
Posted by: Warren Kelly at
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The LDS have made huge advances in getting themselves recognized as Christians. My mom's cousin is LDS, and all around nice guy and a good man. He earns his living by going around to various Mormon churches and ripping out the old angel of Moroni towers and installing steeples.
The new LDS church back in Clarksburg looks just like a Southern Baptist church. Big, square brick building, with a huge white steeple and the Ionic columns out front.
Posted by: Ryan DeBarr at December 10, 2005 03:56 PM (EZnB/)
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Hi Warren,
Just saw your post. I agree we need discernment. In this case that wasn't so much the issue. The criteria for the awards, as you point out, weren't clear. Some-one nominated a Mormon bloggers blog - she didn't know who. The organiser picked the finalists and didn't realise. People who voted visited the finalists blogs - read the latest posts and voted. I don't think it was about discernment - Christian women bloggers aren't all lacking discernment. It was about being pushed for time, reading posts (which don't mention Mormonism) and voting for a lot of different blogs.
In other words, in this case it was just some learning curves in awards organising and mistakes were made. I think in the same way I've had work colleagues and not known their beliefs for ages. Sometimes the hardest person for everyone to get on with in the workplace turns out to be a Christian. I worked with one colleague for a year before finding out she is a Jehovah's Witness. So it isn't always obvious and on the internet when busy people are pushed for time, and have a level of trust in the finalists presented - well a mistake happened.
Somehow it got made about beliefs. But the Mormon blogger who won, when she relaised who the awards were intended for (which hadn't been clear) chose to give back the award - even though the organiser told her she could keep it.
It didn't need to be so controversial. And there weren't Christian women bloggers who were confused about Mormon and Christian beliefs. As I said, it was just a learning curve about running awards. Fortunately the blogger who won has integrity and understands that. A couple of her friends reacted because some-one who was not the awards organiser put up a post - which if you were a winner would be upsetting. You would see some other blogger challenging your award win and not understand why. So they responded after seeing how upset she was - and as the post that went up talked about beliefs they responded. Once the Mormon bloggers got over the shock and realised who the awards were intended for it was resolved. I think it helps to see what actually happened.
God bless,
Catez
Posted by: Catez at December 16, 2005 05:29 PM (CEUV/)
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Thanks for the update, Catez. Hadn't realized that the Mormon blogger gave back the award.
And you present a VERY good point. I know when I'm voting in something like that contest (which I don't do often) I don't always look closely at the blogs that are nominated. In fact, many times I simply vote for the blog that I already read (which defeats one of the purposes of such contests -- to show people new blogs). There is a lot more to this one than meets the eye, clearly.
Posted by: Warren at December 17, 2005 10:17 AM (DPRNU)
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