Comments for Bryan Berghoef

Comment on Lent for the Rest of Us by Colin

Colin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:46:40 +0000

Good stuff, Bryan. Thanks for posting.

Comment on Pub Theology Recap January 5 by svh

svh — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:26:57 +0000

Sorry I missed…went to the meeting with Nicole Foss (Automaic Earth) at TADL and she invited us to continue discussion elsewhere when the building closed…pubs are pubs. Since OCCUPY GA’s moved to Thursdays, I don’t always get there right away. Try harder. (Do I get to pick my own initial or do you assign them randomly?)

Comment on Pub Theology Recap January 5 by Scott Blair

Scott Blair — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:11:44 +0000

S. (reading glasses) can’t envision it as possible to adopt any theology that requires acceptance of any truth-claim that violates the constancy of nature (no parting of seas, virgin birth, Noah’s Ark, divine intervention etc.). This leaves only the possibility of “God” envisioned as the “essence” or “order” underlying the universe (Einstein’s or Spinoza’s God).
S. (reading glasses) advocates not imposing man-invented “miracles” on awesomely beautiful self-consistent natural reality (why apply paint to a lilly or pour perfume on a violet?). S. (reading glasses) has recently been intrigued by the number of theological people who are less inclined to emphasize supernatural truth claims and are more interested in the old texts for their story value. S. (reading glasses) says the most awesome thing about reality is that it is natural not supernatural. S. (reading glasses) enjoyed the opportunity to discuss such things with B. (watershed) and others!

Comment on Afterwards | An Advent Poem by svh

svh — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:39:13 +0000

God inside out. The incarnation remains for me the deepest of mysteries.

Comment on Confessions of a Postconservative by Geoffrey Martineau

Geoffrey Martineau — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:24:32 +0000

I think the long marriage between evangelicalism and the Republican Party (which is not always conservative, but often is) has been disastrous for the Church. I say this as someone who is not a member of the Republican Party but so far has not found a compelling reason to vote for the Democrat Party. I think in general conservative politics tend be better for America at this stage of things than liberal ones, but it is a heresy to conflate the Gospel with any one political stance.

Comment on What are those rich 99%ers complaining about? by Geoffrey Martineau

Geoffrey Martineau — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:17:00 +0000

It’s great that you’re creating discussion, Bryan — nice job! But I do think your argument, while put forth with the best of intentions, really oversimplifies incredibly complex problems into a “we’re all greedy, hypocritical consumers” mantra.

And frankly, I can’t figure out specifically where the OWS people want to take us and how specifically we’l get there.

Comment on Common Sense Jesus? by scevans

scevans — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:25:48 +0000

Truly genius. I love it. It amazes me how people see Jesus through their own lens … and how often I do this too. I seem to have this unshakeable belief that he was a smoker … I wonder why …

Comment on What are those rich 99%ers complaining about? by Peter W. deHaan

Peter W. deHaan — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:39:19 +0000

Brothers and Sisters, thanks for your sharing, indeed we must be reforming always and be precise like in the response to Stan above “So many altars..” need us to alter the spelling. But seriously, Thank you, all! Pete

Comment on Confessions of a Postconservative by clubbers10

clubbers10 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:11:28 +0000

The “Christianity Today” poll doesn’t surprise me. Even in studying the ancient writing of the Torah, I see attitudes and laws that are far more progressive than those most conservative Christians I know would endorse.

I find Rogers’ and Olson’s claims here to be too vague to evaluate properly. Surely, everybody wants to “hold on to what is good;” to claim to remain conservative in this sense is quite a weak claim indeed. Regarding the second sense, being less distrusting of proposals for change doesn’t strike me as a big shift, but maybe it is for Rogers and others.

Is Olson’s claim that it’s “possible to be more evangelical by being less conservative” true? Probably. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were true on almost any understanding of the two key terms, though what he means by ‘evangelical’ and ‘conservative’ is essential to understanding his thesis. The more interesting question is whether being less conservative is a more effective way to be evangelical or makes it more likely that one will become or remain evangelical. (Whether being more evangelical is a desirable thing is another question).

I await the post-read analysis.

Comment on What are those rich 99%ers complaining about? by markhhoffmann

markhhoffmann — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:25:55 +0000

Stan-
So many alters we worship at, mostly blind to the fact that we have replaced God with a sacred cow. I wonder how much milk we’ll have to drain out of this sacred cow before it dies…. Of course in some ways I feel like I have blinders on. Some times I want to take them off, and sadly other times it’s just too comfortable to leave them on.