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local ways to help our friends in haiti Posted by John Hardin 02.02.2010 4:14 pm

haiti relief

EDITORIAL NOTE: A few weeks ago, immediately after news of the earthquake, I posted a roundup of various ways to contribute financially to some of the prominent causes and relief organizations. Those things are certainly still viable and you can find them here. The following post offers more local means of helping.

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It has been three weeks since Haiti was tragically struck by that terrible earthquake. Celebrities have raised money and awareness, organizations have worked tirelessly, people have given their resources generously, and churches have trafficked children (alright, bad joke…maybe). However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and some of it is being done by Central Arkansans.

Local businesses M2 Gallery, Capi’s Restaurant and others have organized Relief on the Ridge: A Benefit for the Red Cross Haiti Fund. The event is Thursday, February 4th from 6:00PM-9:00PM at the Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center. (Map here.) Live bands, great food, silent auctions, important cause.

Also, a friend of some Eikon folks, Thomas Hudson, is currently on his second trip to Jacmel, Haiti to help with cleanup, volunteer organizing and every other thing he can possibly do until he wears himself completely out. Thomas helped collect crucial medicines, tents and countless other supplies, loaded them on a boat in Miami and set sail for Haiti on Saturday. His last Facebook status writes: “We are MILES out at sea, and I still have cell service!!! Due to reports of piracy at sea between Haiti and Cuba, we are sailing around the DR to Jacmel (Haiti).”

He is prepared to stay down there for a while and even make more trips over the coming weeks and months, but he is doing it at his own expense. The bottom line is the more money he can raise, the more trips he can make. He and his team are literally performing life-saving work. Eikon is going to make a significant gift (well, for our little church anyway), but we want to invite you to contribute as well. If you want to contribute through Eikon, simply write a check to Eikon Church and in the memo line put Thomas Hudson – Haiti. *100%* of those funds will go to this specific cause. Mail the check to:

Eikon Church
2501 Kavanaugh Blvd, Unit B
Little Rock, AR 72205

Please let me know ASAP at john@eikonthechurch.com the amount you would like to contribute. Eikon will cover the cost of those contributions until your check arrives. This is truly a great chance to serve.

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Posted in core values, information, social justice, theology | No Comments »



i do confess: our biggest announcement yet Posted by Ryan Byrd 02.02.2010 8:47 am

confessional booth

last june, this thing called eikon kicked off, publicly, with a little cookout with some burgers, some beers and a handful of sorted people. since that time, we’ve connected with new friends and grown over the course of informational meetings, guided conversations and, over the last few months, a handful of worship gatherings. in just the last 6 or 7 months, we’ve come a long way in the initial phases of forming this thing we call a church.

now, we’re incredibly excited to share with everyone that we’ve reached the next step in the process of fleshing out our growing community. on sunday, february 14, we’ll take a big step forward by kicking off weekly gatherings. as mentioned, so far we’ve had worship gatherings every few weeks, but now, we’re ready to move to something more regular that will help to foster a more fluid community.

along with the announcement of moving to weekly gatherings, we’re also excited to announce that we’ll be kicking things off with a 6-week series called confessional booth. one of our deepest convictions at eikon is that the church—in the universal sense—has certainly made innumerable positive contributions to the world, but we’ve also helped to create quite a bit of warranted mistrust, division and disbelief (among other things). throughout this series, we want to take the opportunity to address and confess some of these shortcomings and dream together about some ideas that will hopefully help to chart a new course. no doubt, we at eikon will do our fair share of screwing things up, getting things wrong and even adding to the problem at times, but we hope, throughout the themes of the series, to share our values that offer an alternative to those missteps.

as opposed to the typical scenario where the “congregant” confesses to a clergy member, the thrust of our series will be us confessing to you. we want to be honest and offer a sense of humility as we talk frankly and openly. at the same time, we’re excited to offer everyone a chance to bear their soul a little. now, we’re not going to have an actual confessional booth or some kind of awkward moment where we call people out, but we think we’ve come up with some creative ways to “come clean”. think confessional meets postsecret. that’s the idea, so we hope you come out to experience it!

over the next several days, we’ll trickle out some other helpful details, so be sure to check back regularly. throughout this and upcoming related announcements, the general theme—in the end—is that we’re incredibly excited and we would really love for you to be a part of this important time for our growing community.

we’d love for you to partner with us in getting the word out and making this a big night. so, feel free to forward this blog post on to friends, twitter it, post it on facebook or—as crazy as this sounds—have an actual real life conversation with friends and coworkers. :)

see you on sunday, february 14 for confessional booth!

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Posted in announcements, core values, events, gatherings, information, theology, worship | 2 Comments »



relief roundup: how to help haiti Posted by John Hardin 01.14.2010 6:45 pm

haiti relief

By now each of us has surely heard of the tragic earthquake that struck the island of Haiti on January 12th. It measured a whopping 7.0 on the Richter scale and has left death, destruction and sheer desperation in its wake. Death toll estimates are ranging from 50,000 people to a few hundred thousand and the number of injured will certainly dwarf that. This would be devastating to even the richest of nations, but the devastation is amplified in what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Rather than spend time waxing (un)poetic about pacts Haitians made with the devil, it’s imperative that Eikon and other faith groups be part of the solution. There is something that each of us can do.

Most of us are not in a position to physically go to Haiti to offer assistance. If anyone is interested in that, let me (John) know and I’ll track down a contact that can get you set up. For the rest of us, the best thing to do in situations like this is get as much money as possible to good organizations that are supplying life-saving materials and services.

As usual, the American Red Cross is doing an incredible job. They have used new communications and media to make it ridiculously easy to give. Simply text Haiti to 90999 and $10 (which will show up on your next phone bill) will be given to the organization. Maybe it’s not the $1 million that Brad and Angelina gave, but those texts have collectively added up to over $4 million.

Also, Haiti native and incredibly talented musician Wyclef Jean is working tirelessly to raise money and support through his organization Yele. You can give $5 to them by texting 501501.

On a local level, Boulevard Bread is giving 50% of today’s (1/14) profits to Haitian relief and The House restaurant is donating 100% of today’s (1/14) net profit. So, go have a meal and know that the money is going to great food and a great cause. Despite the fact that they aren’t—as self-described—”traditional first responders”, local organization Heifer International has issued an emergency appeal for funds.

There are literally dozens of organizations providing crucial assistance, and many of them have dozens of ways in which you can contribute. The most comprehensive clearinghouse I have found is at the Huffington Post here.

Eikon is sending a donation to Doctors Without Borders, but we also encourage you to find some way to contribute individually. Please share your thoughts about how we as a body can do more. Additionally, if there is a local organization providing relief that you feel strongly about, let us know and we will get the word out.

Finally, let’s keep these beautiful and shattered people in our thoughts and prayers.

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Posted in core values, culture, information, social justice, theology, volunteer | No Comments »



so what does eikon believe?: orthodoxy vs. monodoxy Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.10.2010 3:15 pm

last night on twitter, author/theologian/semiotician/generally brilliant person len sweet posted the following tweet:

Orthodox or “Monodox” (Keith Ward’s word)? Orthodoxy=right beliefs: Monodoxy=1 belief, 1 right way to believe, only 1 set of true beliefs.

intriguing.

his thoughts were particularly engaging to me because i think they point to a value of eikon that’s worth exploring. as we’re still in the initial phases of development and growth, we have a lot of people seeking information about what kind of community eikon is and will become. as a part of this process and as people begin to join us at our various gatherings, we get a wide range of commentary like the following:

you guys aren’t very churchy.
you guys are more churchy than i expected.
i can’t really pin down what eikon believes.
eikon seems to be pretty narrow in its beliefs.

in other words, everyone has their own particular perspective and set of presuppositions which lends itself to seeing something very different than the next person. i think a part of this comes from, ultimately, the fact that we’re a little more fluid in the way we define our set of “truths” or hard-and-fast standard of so-called orthodoxy.

don’t get me wrong, we certainly have a series of “guiding theologies” that help to bring some cohesion to our community and shape the way we interact with each other and make decisions as leaders. these things are at the core of what it means to be a part of this faith community, but we’re careful to distinguish—as len sweet points out—between “orthodoxy” and “monodoxy”.

without going into tangential detail, we’re a little leary of a word like “orthodoxy” because it’s simultaneously broad and narrow. on one hand, it encompasses so many things to so many different people. “orthodoxy” to those in the roman catholic tradition might be heresy to those in the pentecostal tradition (or vice versa). on the other hand, “orthodoxy” can be seen as a very narrow window of beliefs that disallows a robust conversation about ideas and theologies. ultimately, though, i think what len sweet is getting at is simply some kind of shared beliefs that help to garner a cohesive theological conversation.

on the other hand, though, his suggestion (as i see it) that “monodoxy” is a dangerous element within the church is one we most certainly share. whereas, again, we have a set of theologies that help to communicate the vision for our community, a key theme of those theologies is that there’s room for a wide variety of interpretations of those values. when we say that our most fundamental guiding theology is the centrality of jesus, the question, naturally, that we’ve received from people is, “which jesus are you talking about?” the jesus who wept over the death of a friend or the jesus who used a whip to clear out the temple money collectors? certainly, one’s way of viewing jesus can be fundamentally different than the next person without straying away from a shared sense of “orthodoxy”. this, though, isn’t true with the concept of “monodoxy.’

monodoxy insists that there is only one view of jesus and if one strays from that singular viewpoint, then they have violated a sacred sense of “rightness”. if you worked your way through our list of guiding theologies, you could use any as an example. take ’scripture.’ for many, scripture is the inerrant, infallible word of god. for many others, though, there’s a sense of “limited inerrancy”, which is a nuanced version of the preceding view of scripture. both of these views can certainly fall in line with an orthodox understanding of bibliology, but would certainly violate the singularity of one’s monodoxy.

ultimately, the point i’m getting at is that we certainly have overarching shared beliefs that characterize our faith community, but never want to be guilty of monodoxy. we have room for a variety of beliefs about god (or even lack of beliefs about god). we hope eikon can be a place where people don’t have to agree, but can engage in a conversation that leads to mutual understanding and growth. we absolutely hope to make jesus known and guide people in living in a way that resembles the life and person of christ, but we think there’s a bigger conversation involved with that than just a singular angle or a narrow monodoxy.

so, we’re currently in the process of adding voices to this community called eikon. there’s certainly room at the table for you and the perspectives you bring. we hope to both connect with and learn from you soon.

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altView: a series in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.23.2009 5:37 pm

altView

several months ago, i had the idea to let people hear the voices of various people in our ever-blossoming faith community. that idea became a tangible reality just over a month ago with the introduction of the series altView. personally, it’s been a great chance to further hear the stories of faith (and sometimes, non-faith) from the people i’ve come to know over the last several months. for others, as feedback in both conversation and comments, it’s been a time to see the breadth of points-of-view from a all kinds of people in all kinds of life situations.

in my intro to the series, i wrote the following,

there will be no filters and no agendas. these aren’t sales pitches for eikon. they aren’t a bunch of “come to jesus” posts, attempting to convert the masses. i’ve simply invited a cross section of our community—representing various points-of-view and levels of faith commitments—to share what’s significant to them. maybe it’s an issue or cause about which they’re passionate. maybe it’s a significant place in their life where faith came to the forefront. maybe it’s the point they decided, “i’m through with church.” maybe it’s the point they decided, “i need the church.” it’s really wide open.

i hope that’s what has transpired. i think it is. unfiltered. without agenda. and beautiful. and sometimes ugly. and sometimes scary. and sometimes doubtful.

before beginning the series, a pastor friend warned that doing this could lead to people “speaking on behalf” of our church. he warned that people—if unfiltered—could say things that could turn other people off and give the wrong impression if it didn’t represent “orthodox theology.” their point-of-view might contradict my point-of-view as the leader and visionary for the church.

my pastor friend was exactly right.

and that’s why i chose to do it.

one of the values of both altView and eikon in general, is that people are the church. not one man. not one pastor. not just the pastors and leaders. it’s people. it’s the collective conversation of a community of people who bring to the table their experiences and their hopes and their sensibilities and their deepest doubts and their most hidden insecurities and their most valued thoughts about god and the world.

eikon church isn’t ryan byrd. it’s a community of views. of alternative views that describe god and the world around us. sometimes they look like what you’ve heard your whole life. and sometimes they look like the buddhist philosophy of loving-kindness. and sometimes they look like a nebulizer. but they’re always representative of the collective conversation of people engaged in a community that is about pursuing the way of a man named jesus.

i hope you’ve enjoyed this series. this isn’t the last time you’ve heard from some or all of these people and some people you haven’t heard yet.

we will continue to grow with a myriad of altViews. some you will agree with. some you will not. some you will be deeply touched by. and some you will find dissonant from your experience. some will resonate so powerfully within you that you will be moved to action. and some will make you question yourself so intensely that you will be frozen for a moment until you sort out your feelings.

so, as we prepare to enter a new year that is sure to be a huge year for our community, we invite you to share your altView. it may not be here on a blog or written down somewhere, but we certainly invite you to the reality of our ongoing conversation in this thing called eikon.

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Posted in altview, blog stuff, core values, information, leadership, theology | 1 Comment »



altView: christen byrd Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.18.2009 7:53 am

altView

all in all, i think i have been on a journey for quite some time, and still am right now. my lifetime movie would be called “forced to trust god.” over the past 6 years i feel that i have had no other choice but to have some sort of faith. no matter how little faith or how much at the time. ryan and i started our marriage pretty great. everyone says the first year was the hardest…it was our easiest. married to my best friend, good jobs, all the time in the world to think about our wonderful future. little did we know where we would be now.

we moved to lexington, kentucky after a year for ryan to attend seminary. that was probably the worst year of my life…and the best. i had a horrible job in which i traveled about 4-5 days at a time. i had no friends, except ryan. i was definitely depressed, we were so broke we couldn’t even afford to get our heat turned on. i was so lonely and broken…yet ryan and i grew closer than we ever had…because we were forced to. all we had was each other and god…literally. even though i look back on those days and can honestly feel the loneliness and sadness i felt then, i am so thankful for them. i was forced to rely on god, completely. from being able to buy groceries to just getting to wherever the heck i was supposed to be while traveling across several states for my horrible job (did i mention i hated my job). even trusting god that ryan wouldn’t freeze to death while i was gone when we didn’t have heat…

thankfully, we moved after a year to paducah, ky to serve in a church plant there. it was also a major move in our lives that required just faith. basically because in april i said “we are moving in may…get on it.” when ryan tried to tell me to be patient, i refused, i found a job, an apartment…and we moved the last week in may. (i was right) this was a difficult/wonderful/exciting/frustrating experience for us altogether. we have so many great memories from our life in paducah…mainly lucy being born, of course (don’t get me started, i may start crying).

and now…we’re here. what else is there to say. no seriously, this has been nothing less of another chapter in my journey of my faith. i mean, we started this Eikon journey over 2 years ago. we were not handed the keys to a church building, a big budget, a congregation (i don’t even like that word). in fact, ryan’s kind of been told in more ways than one…”you have all the qualities of a great church planter, but you don’t want to do it our way, nevermind then.” it’s at that point you say “ah crap, what do we do now.” and you begin to second guess what you’re doing with your life, and what you’re dragging your family into, and is it going to work, are we going to fail? these are not fun things to think about or ask yourself.

however, i’ve found to not put my faith in my husband…but to put my faith in god. i trust that ryan will do what god has given him the ability to do. and it will happen if it’s supposed to. i hate the saying “it’s a god thing.” it drives me nuts! i mean, everything is dependent on god. so why are such wonderful things “god things.” (if you die…it’s still a “god thing,” but nobody says it so excitedly then. maybe i’ll try that at the next funeral i attend.) i’ve found that in the past i’ve put way too much faith in the wrong people and things and i end up being so disappointed.

I am definitely reminded of how much i am forced to trust god, each and every day. as a mom to lucy and olive, and another one in june (talk about faith)…i rely on him to help me be a better mom. seriously, this may sound silly…but you try being at home everyday with a 1 year old, 2 year old, pregnant mom…and being married to ryan. and i rely on god to help me be a better wife, every day. it has definitely been a long 2 years of planning and meeting and everything else that ryan spends most nights working on. and i’m not always that supportive (i know, you all think i’m perfect, sorry to burst your bubble).

i trust god that someday this will all be worth it. not because i plan on having some big mega church (although i definitely think ryan would look cool with a curly mullet)…but because i feel that i am finally in a place where i’m doing what i’m supposed to be doing with the people we’re supposed to be with. it has been such a long journey, but i can see all the pieces slowly coming together. i finally feel comfortable with a group of believers. i feel like god has a million other things for me to do…but now i’m in a place that i can actually do them someday.

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altView: derek blaylock Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.14.2009 10:25 am

altView

When Ryan told me I could write an uncensored blog my first thought was to preach why everybody should seek to repeal the tobacco tax, or why the Kansas Jayhawks are awesome, or why Arkansas needs much colder weather, but most of you have heard those discourses from me many times over. Instead I decided to write a parable on the relationship of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and our limited tolerance of theological diversity. Hopefully it will make sense.

I work as a sales representative for a nebulizer company and I call on pediatricians in clinics and hospitals. My role is to convince doctors why they need to use my company as their supplier of nebulizers. First of all, a Nebulizer is a device used to deliver medication in the form of a mist which is inhaled into the lungs in order to improve breathing. The bottom line for a nebulizer is to get the patient breathing better so they can live a healthier life.

In the medical industry there are many companies who manufacture nebulizers, so how do we know which one is “right”? Well, essentially all nebulizers are the same, but there is one major non-negotiable in regards to nebulizers. The patient probably will not fully understand the pharmacological efficacy of the device so the non-negotiable aspect is the patient needs to appreciate that the treatment itself is going to make their life better; not perfect, but better. Our society sometimes places too high a value on trying to figure everything out, but there are some aspects of the nebulizer and the treatment that are beyond most people’s comprehension. The beauty of the matter is not in knowing how the treatment works but the fact that the treatment does work.

Essentially, all nebulizers are the same and have the same desired outcome: breathing better because of the treatment. But there are some minor differences. Some have a better treatment time, some a higher respirable fraction, and some are more portable, but in choosing a nebulizer sometimes the deciding factor needs to be what allows the treatment to have a deeper deposition with the patient.

In finishing, a sales representative with my company told me about a conversation she had with a doctor about how our company started. She told the doctor how several years ago our owners broke off from the original company to start their own nebulizer company because of differing interpretations of the business contract. The original company sued our owners and then our owners countersued; all the while both companies are still to this day trying to gain market-share over each other. The doctor’s comment, “That’s a lot of drama over nebulizers.”

I agree with the doctor. I want him to use my nebulizers but I realize I am biased about what nebulizer delivers a better treatment. But all the doctors and companies agree that the main thing needed for making breathing and living better…is the treatment.

nebulizer = denomination/religion
doctor = pastor
treatment = God’s redemptive work in a person’s life
patient = a person
breathing better = following Christ
healthier life = bringing God’s kingdom to earth

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Posted in altview, theology | 4 Comments »



altView: cara beth buie Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.11.2009 12:02 pm

altView

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. 
–C. S. Lewis

My whole life Christianity has been spoon fed to me literally since I was born. From the time I was old enough to lift my head, I was dedicated as an infant to God in front of my family and our entire church. From then on, it was Vacation Bible School, Mission Friends, Girls in Action, Acteens, Youth Group, (and the list goes on). I went on to attend a private Baptist college and am now working for a religious organization. I have been surrounded by church my entire being. I literally know nothing else. I don’t know how to function without Christianity.

But in the same way, I don’t know how to function WITH Christianity. I have been “programmed”, so to speak, that I am comfortable just lying in my own Christian filth. It disgusts me how contented I have become in my own faith. In keeping with the egg analogy mentioned in the quote above, I am, figuratively speaking, an egg that has been marinating in its own shell for 26 years. Pretty gross huh?

In college I went through the normal, “who am I REALLY?” crisis that every young adult goes through. I questioned everything: my parents, my friends, my boyfriend, my degree choice, (which interestingly enough was Christian Ministries) but most of all, I questioned Christianity as a whole. What makes Christianity the RIGHT religion? Just because I was doused in it my whole life doesn’t make it the RIGHT way of living, does it? Just because my parents believe and their parents believe and their parents before them, what makes Christianity the “right” way? There I was sitting in Christian Ministry classes wondering if I even believed any of it. I rapidly turned away from everything I had been taught to believe. But it wasn’t enough. I had to know for sure WHY I believed it and KNOW that it was truth.

After years of stubbornness and questioning everything I had ever been taught, I gave in, and admitted that God was God. (C. S. Lewis) Even through my selfish denial, my faith was challenged, I questioned God and yes, even ignored that He even existed and He never failed me, not even one.

I know now that I cannot remain as is or I might, in fact, go insane. I must be hatched or go bad.

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Posted in altview, theology | 1 Comment »



altView: don gaines Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.09.2009 10:16 am

altView

Raised a Baptist, attended a Church of Christ college, now seemingly lost from the fold, at least to some.

I read a book in college about postmodernism. The cover was dog ugly. The only little gem I remember from this book, which has come to serve me well, is that you can’t put God in a box. The instant we say ‘God is this,’ or ‘God isn’t that,’ we place him inside a constrained proportion.

I’ve learned that God can be logical and doesn’t have to be based on feelings or traditions. We can learn about the character of God and try our best to model ourselves after that. One of the most predominant characteristics of Him that I personally strive for is love. At the root of all that is good we find love. Love for our family, friends, strangers, everyone. That’s the only way I can see this life being worth anything. I believe, to a large degree, that many of the situations where love is applied require a choice. Love doesn’t just happen (except probably with your children and some family). It is overwhelmingly a choice.

The only constraint I can put on God for sure is that he is love. That’s what I want to be.

The hardcore music scene has been a large part of the people and culture I’m surrounded by. It’s where I’ve made some of my best friends and fostered incredible relationships. In this scene I find love, tolerance, positivity and a willingness to share. Aaron Weiss of the band mewithoutYou writes, “In everywhere we look, in everywhere we look, Allah, Allah, Allah in everywhere we look” He’s a Christian but refers to God as Allah. He’s not bounding God up into this Westernized, Republican, Capitalistic piece of work that we so commonly see. We have to strive daily to find the positive aspects in our lives and to try and find God (whoever/whatever that may be to you) in every situation.

The other little gem I took from the class in which we read the postmodern book is from the teacher, Dr. Monte Cox. I’m not sure I agree with him on a lot of things but he repeatedly brought up this paraphrased scenario and I agreed with it wholeheartedly, “People often ask me, ‘Do you think Muslims (insert random religion here) are going to heaven too?’ I don’t know. That’s not my place to say. Many of them practice the same things as I do but call it by a different name, so it is not my place to say yes or no.”

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Posted in altview, theology | 1 Comment »



altView: brent buie Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.04.2009 8:47 am

altView

I was eleven years old when I read the Bible for the first time. Straight through. Genesis to Revelation. It took me four months, but I did finish.1 Impressed?

If you raised your hand there are two reasons you should not be impressed. First: There was an ulterior motive. I do not remember why, but I was going to receive credit in school. This was in the small-town south, back in the golden days of yesteryear (circa 1987), so it was not that shocking. Second: I didn’t get it. The Bible, I mean. To be sure, there were plenty of things to capture a young boy’s imagination. It is, after all, filled with sex and violence, magic and miracles, love and sacrifice. But even after the final Amen, I still didn’t understand.

Oh, I understood the concept of salvation well enough to believe that it was something that I needed. But something didn’t quite sit right. It seemed that I had spent four months to get to a point that could be explained in about thirty minutes (depending on the student’s alacrity). There had to be something more. The trick, I determined, was to have someone explain it to you.

I spent the next eight years having the Bible doled out one hour at a time on Sundays. This was much easier. It was the fast-track to a Godly life – give me a bit, hang an amen on it, and let’s-have-lunch-the-Chiefs-kickoff-at-3:15. It was not until college that I really read the Bible again.

I was attending a study group for my New Testament class, when one of the other participants mentioned one of their beliefs. And I didn’t buy it. (I still refer to this belief as the “New Wine Conundrum.”)

Filled with a righteously indignant energy, I rushed back to my room intent on proving him wrong.2 Time and distance cooled my anger. He was not a bad person, just misinformed. Obviously someone had told him wrong. Obviously . . .

My next thought struck hard: If they were told wrong, then how do I know that I was told right? The answer, friends and neighbors, is that I could not know. I had left my beliefs in someone else’s hands. What!?

Naturally, on the revelation score card, John has me beat cold. But for me, it was life altering. The principles which I held dear had been dictated by others. There was no me in it.

I am no honored scholar of religion and I would never suggest that everyone freely interpret the Bible’s scriptures. But I do believe that each of us will be held accountable. When that time comes, it will not suffice to say, “because others told me to do so.” We must perform the religious due diligence. We must all have something of ourselves in what we believe.

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Posted in altview, theology | 3 Comments »



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