Tue, 10 March 2009  This weeks podcast features author and journalist Christine Wicker as she reflects on her book The Fall Of The Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church and her own journey in and out of church. Direct download: The_Fall_Of_The_Evangelical_Nation_With_Christine_Wicker.mp3 Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:45 AM Comments[2] |
I found myself actually saying many heartfelt “Amen!”s while listening to a recent Off The Map Podcast titled The Fall of the Evangelical Nation With Christine Wicker. I agreed with so much of what she said.
I *think* I get what she’s saying.
“If God is so good, why aren’t people finding it in Christianity? What if there really were a Holy Spirit? If there were, why are Christians falling down on the job? Bueller?”
“Thank you, Christine, for making us think [chuckle] But, my thought is that most everyone believes in God, but they don’t all believe in what He wrote, we believe in a text, and to me, that’s the difference [...] I don’t see how you can be a follower of Jesus at all and believe in Him, if you don’t believe what he said, [...] and I would think that basis of our reality has to be that written text, if you don’t believe in that, then anything goes.” [33:23 - 34:33]
At first listen, I bellowed a primal scream of frustration (I was driving, windows were down). Then (after several hours of repose) I looked at the “question” again. I tried to hear the words the man did not (perhaps could not) say.
My attempt at a paraphrase:
“Thank you, Christine, for making me think. It scares me to think you’re right. We’ve always said that what makes us different from everyone else is that we believe that God is the Author of the Bible. Since us just saying ‘you’ve got to believe the Bible’ doesn’t seem to be working, how can we be followers of Jesus, how can we believe in Him at all? Help us, help us, please.”
I *think* I get what she’s saying.
“If God is so good, why aren’t people finding it in Christianity? What if there really were a Holy Spirit? If there were, why are Christians falling down on the job? Bueller?”
“Thank you, Christine, for making us think [chuckle] But, my thought is that most everyone believes in God, but they don’t all believe in what He wrote, we believe in a text, and to me, that’s the difference [...] I don’t see how you can be a follower of Jesus at all and believe in Him, if you don’t believe what he said, [...] and I would think that basis of our reality has to be that written text, if you don’t believe in that, then anything goes.” [33:23 - 34:33]
At first listen, I bellowed a primal scream of frustration (I was driving, windows were down). Then (after several hours of repose) I looked at the “question” again. I tried to hear the words the man did not (perhaps could not) say.
My attempt at a paraphrase:
“Thank you, Christine, for making me think. It scares me to think you’re right. We’ve always said that what makes us different from everyone else is that we believe that God is the Author of the Bible. Since us just saying ‘you’ve got to believe the Bible’ doesn’t seem to be working, how can we be followers of Jesus, how can we believe in Him at all? Help us, help us, please.”
posted by: Michael J Pruitt on Sun, 3/15 08:29 PM EDT
The podcast (both the iTunes version and the version from this site, if those are different sources) seems to cut off at 38:43. Any chance of a link to a full version?
posted by: Michael J Pruitt on Mon, 3/16 10:58 AM EDT
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