aphorisms ⁽³⁾

Originally prepared September 2012 (09/17/2012, 11:46 PM, to be excessively precise) as a comment on a Facebook friend's post. As I don't have permission to reproduce the image I'm responding to, I ask the reader to visualize the following. A smiling teacher points to a world map on her left (your right, and the right side of the image) with a blackboard (green rather than black, if you want to be technical)…

Though I'm generally a fan of LifeWay and its publications, I'm disappointed to find its new Gospel Project curriculum* indulging in the weary and misguided "religion is bad / Christianity is something other than religion" rhetoric (Ed Stetzer, General Editor, and Trevin Wax, Managing Editor, The Gospel Project: Adult Personal Study Guide, v. 1, no. 1 [Fall 2012], 15). Though the more common false dichotomy is "Christianity is not a religion, it's…

The world is full of popular, clever-sounding sayings that are simply not true. This brief post concerns one such pseudo-aphorism, namely this: This popular saying, which I have heard from pulpits and from other Christians for as long I can remember, has finally exceeded my tolerance. A relationship motivates practice; it does not replace it. Therefore, Christianity is both a religion and a relationship, with the latter motivating the former. To deny…