A Sound of Sheer Silence

The Gospel Coalition is an evangelical organization that seems to take it upon itself to police the boundaries of the evangelical world.  A gentleman named Kevin DeYoung, clearly distressed that some of his fellow travelers in the evangelical world are happy about the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage, has issued "40 Questions for Christians Now Waiving Rainbow Flags." While I have a strong suspicion that these questions are not being asked in good faith, I choose to follow the lead of Buzz Dixon and treat them as legitimate inquiries .  Mr. Dixon answers the questions from the perspective of someone who appears to have once been an evangelical; my answers are slightly different.   [Note: NALT founder John Shore addresses the questions in a less charitable, but still appropriate, way.   Matthew Vines's counter-questions are also very much worth reading. ]  So, I figured I would answer them from my perspective. 1. How long have you believed that gay ma...

The title of this blog comes from probably my favorite passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, from the story of Elijah the prophet.  As was his way, Elijah had made himself unpopular with the powers that be in the Kingdom of Israel (notably King Ahab and his wife, the original Jezebel), and had fled to Mount Horeb to escape the mob out to kill him.  Elijah had more or less given up on this whole being a prophet of God thing at this point, and tells God this in no uncertain terms.  To which, God says: "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."  Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in h...

If you read any article about religion on a general news website, it is inevitable that there will be a host of comments in the discussion section that are variations on the theme of "religion is stupid, and it would be better if all of these religious people either stop believing or go away."  Now, comment sections on websites are never a place to find respectful and informative discourse on anything, so this is not remotely surprising.  And, of course, you find similar trollish comments from religious conservatives of various flavors. Still, the idea that religion is useless and only stupid people are believers is a prominent idea.  In one of the recent articles that I read (I believe it was one of Rachel Held Evans's posts of CNN), a commenter suggested that it would be helpful for believers to explain why they believe, in a way that goes beyond the unproductive "read the Bible and you will believe" polemics. So, here's my attempt, split into a couple...