tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45139531766936931072024-03-08T03:01:08.272-08:00Simon Cox BlogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.comBlogger5372125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-13919872817203015942019-04-24T03:09:00.001-07:002019-04-24T03:09:10.665-07:00Abandoned Religion: The Burning Pillar Of Human FollyThis is a guest post from Douglas Balmain. It will sure stoke up some conversation… Thanks for his contribution: It took some restraint to hold this back until now. I was writing like mad the day of the fire, swept up with the flames in a swelter of frustrations. But, when attempting to convey clear-headed ideas, […]<br />
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from<br />
<a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/24/abandoned-religion-the-burning-pillar-of-human-folly/">https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/24/abandoned-religion-the-burning-pillar-of-human-folly/</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-33600666717439012002019-04-23T21:14:00.001-07:002019-04-23T21:14:32.348-07:001 Peter 1:18-19“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”<br />
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from<br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=1%20Peter%201:18-19">https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=1%20Peter%201:18-19</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-61405987237480392172019-04-23T15:05:00.001-07:002019-04-23T15:05:35.933-07:00Six Biblical Responses to Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings<p class="deck">God gives us the freedom to leave the revenge cycle and instead do what we can do: love our enemies and bless them.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90392.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">I was not at church in Colombo on Easter Sunday morning, as I was sick and had stayed home. Then text messages began to come about a bombing, then several bombings, in my home town and in two other towns. One was only a few miles from my home.</p>
<p class="text">Ten years after our protracted war had ended, I realized that Sri Lanka, my dear nation, was again confronting severe violent attacks. I had preached several times in one of the targeted churches, Zion Church in Batticaloa. The sister of one of my colleagues was at the service, and was seriously injured. She is still battling for her life. The death toll has risen to 320. Unbelievable.</p>
<p class="text">Whenever tragedy hits a nation, Christians need to ask how to think biblically in response to the situation. As Christianity is a body religion, it is best that groups of Christians meet and discuss a common response to the challenges. We cannot delay our response. There are both immediate responses and more long-term responses to heal the wounds of our people.</p>
<p class="text">I have thought of at least six necessary responses from Christians to what has happened:</p>
<h4 class="subhead">1) Lament Loss</h4>
<p class="text">Christians must join the nation in lamenting and mourning over our losses. Protestants have been somewhat lacking in espousing a theology of groaning (Rom. 8:23) that opens the door to lament (though that seems to be changing). The Old Testament has many instances of elaborate mourning customs, and that is found in the New Testament too. The church responded to Stephen’s death with a “great lamentation over him” (Acts 8:2; also see 9:39). Each country has its cultural ways of lament, and we must look for practices to adopt which harmonize with Christianity. In addition to Easter time, April is New Year in Sri Lanka and most Christians ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/gzgn6phUp2I/sri-lanka-easter-church-bombings-biblical-response.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/gzgn6phUp2I/sri-lanka-easter-church-bombings-biblical-response.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-71634281734891620942019-04-23T11:25:00.001-07:002019-04-23T11:25:13.400-07:00Evangelism Is More Prayer Than Action for Protestant Churchgoers<p class="deck">Survey finds more than half of monthly worshipers haven’t shared Jesus in the past six months.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90390.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">Most Protestant churchgoers say they are eager to talk to others about Jesus, and are praying for opportunities to share their faith. But most say they have not had any evangelistic conversations in the past six months.</p>
<p class="text">The 2019 <a href="http://discipleshippathwayassessment.com/" target="_blank" class="">Discipleship Pathway Assessment</a> study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found excitement and eagerness about the idea of evangelism, but few Protestant churchgoers actually engaged in the practice on a regular basis.</p>
<p class="text">More than half (55%) of those who attend church at least once a month say they have not shared with someone how to become a Christian in the past six months.</p>
<p class="text">“Sharing the good news that Jesus paid for our sins through His death on the cross and rose again to bring us new life is the mission of the church,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, “but it does not appear to be the priority of churchgoers.”</p>
<h5 class="subhead2">Seeking evangelistic opportunities</h5>
<p class="text">A majority of churchgoers (56%) say they pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus at least once a week, with about 1 in 4 (23%) praying for such moments every day.</p>
<p class="text">Another 1 in 4 (27%) say they rarely or never pray for those opportunities.</p>
<p class="text">Those with a high school diploma or less are most likely to say they pray for those opportunities every day (31%).</p>
<p class="text">Hispanics (36%) and African Americans (29%) are more likely to offer those prayers every day compared to whites (20%) or other ethnicities (17%).</p>
<p class="text">Increased church attendance makes it more likely someone has offered evangelistic prayers.</p>
<p class="text">Those who attend a worship service on average once a week (75%) are more likely than churchgoers who attend less frequently (69%) to pray evangelistically at least once a month.</p>
<p class="text">Most churchgoers (56%) also say they are eager ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/BP4puSAmq5U/evangelism-survey-protestant-churchgoers-prayer-invite.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/BP4puSAmq5U/evangelism-survey-protestant-churchgoers-prayer-invite.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-5128019694488153712019-04-23T08:45:00.001-07:002019-04-23T08:45:32.091-07:00When Our Ultrasound Revealed a Birth Defect, My Doctor Offered an Abortion<p class="deck">We've never regretted saying no, but his words still haunt me.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90386.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">I was a little over halfway through my pregnancy when my husband and I sat gripping each other’s hands while a specialist gesticulated as he described the options for our unborn baby. We could opt for life-saving surgeries, we could give her comfort care once born but allow her to die without intervention, or we could choose to abort.</p>
<p class="text">“The root of [the word] <em>disaster</em> means a star coming apart, and no image expresses better the look in a patient’s eyes when hearing a neurosurgeon’s diagnosis,” says the late Paul Kalanithi in <em>When Breath Becomes Air.</em> A star coming apart perfectly describes how it felt to be told that our daughter had a severe heart defect that would kill her soon after birth without medical intervention.</p>
<p class="text">When the word abortion was brought into the conversation, my hand involuntarily reached out in a painful appeal to leave that option off the table. He brushed my objection aside, “I know that many parents don’t want to hear about this option, but I legally have to tell you.” He continued describing what abortion would look like in some detail, then the medical team melted off into the hospital.</p>
<p class="text">This moment has haunted me for years, and it has come to mind as pro-choice and pro-life positions are again debated in many states, much of the argument being over “nonviable pregnancies” or “medically fragile fetuses.” Some of the debate surrounding new bills and legislation is over what it looks like to show compassion to parents and to unborn babies when faced with serious, life-threatening birth defects. A baby with any birth defect—life threatening or not—challenges us personally and as a society to examine what our values are. The ...</p>
<p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/april-web-only/when-our-ultrasound-revealed-birth-defect-my-doctor-offered.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/dK_7rw_j-q0/when-our-ultrasound-revealed-birth-defect-my-doctor-offered.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/dK_7rw_j-q0/when-our-ultrasound-revealed-birth-defect-my-doctor-offered.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-66674038687748719172019-04-23T07:35:00.003-07:002019-04-23T07:35:17.047-07:00Theology of the Future<p class="deck">Bible scholars, theologians, and philosophers used to work together. N.T. Wright believes they need to do so again.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/89925.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">Stop thinking like children.” Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians is even more urgent for us today. Though they should be like little children when it came to evil, he insisted they should be grown-ups when it came to thinking. To that end, Paul constantly tried to teach people not only what to think but how to think. This remains vital. The various disciplines grouped together as “theology” or “divinity” are uniquely positioned to continue this project.</p>
<p class="text">People today often comment about the decline of civil, reasoned conversation in all walks of life. Theology has an opportunity to model a genuinely interdisciplinary conversation of the sort we urgently need, not least because in its very nature it ought to bridge the gap between the academy and the larger world.</p>
<p class="text">The great theologians of the past—such as Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin—all tried to bring the Bible, philosophy, and theology into a shared conversation. As each of these fields advances, they need one another all the more.</p>
<h4 class="subhead">The Challenge of Our Time</h4>
<p class="text">Despite what cynical critics think, the Christian faith is growing and expanding. The <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/" target="_blank" class="">Pew Research Center estimates</a> that there will be 3 billion Christians by 2050, most of these in countries with little opportunity for further or higher education and minimal seminary provision. But without rigorous theological study, in its widest senses, the global church will be vulnerable to distorted or lopsided teaching. In particular, it will not be equipped to address the big questions that the wider world is asking and that emerge in new forms with every generation and every cultural shift.</p>
<p class="text">Those familiar with some of the more negative theological writing and biblical scholarship ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Rt_TLeljfAU/n-t-wright-theology-of-future.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Rt_TLeljfAU/n-t-wright-theology-of-future.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-55972388242052559622019-04-23T07:35:00.001-07:002019-04-23T07:35:16.508-07:00Lost in Translation: Lessons from Language Can Help Us Share the Gospel<p class="deck">Every generation has to figure out how to engage and reach people in culture. Translation and immersion are key ideas that will help..</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90384.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">In my leadership role with World Methodist Evangelism, I frequently am in international environments, depending heavily on the skills of translators and interpreters. These are gifted people!</p>
<p class="text">I recall teaching on evangelism in Vladivostok, Russia a few years ago. I was trying to make an important point, which in English is not difficult to understand. It’s the idea that in evangelism, no way is <em>the</em> way, but each way, by God’s grace, can become <em>a</em> way. The emphasis is on the word “the”(which implies a sense of singularity) and the word “a” (which implies a variety of possibilities).</p>
<p class="text">The point is that there is never only one way to evangelize; rather, there are a wide variety of fruitful approaches, depending on your environment.</p>
<p class="text">What I didn’t realize is that in Russian, there is no easy way to translate “the” and “a,” especially to make the point I was trying to make. It took a few minutes of discussion with my interpreter, along with a much longer explanation in Russian, to finally make that one sentence clear.</p>
<p class="text">In our life of faith, translation is critical.</p>
<p class="text">How do we understand this good news of Jesus Christ? How is it that we make it known to others? How do we translate this news that is at one and the same time something that inspires silent awe, joyful praise, tearful repentance, ecstatic utterances, or quiet prayer?</p>
<p class="text">How do we make known a gospel that is at one and the same time something that moves us to a life of personal piety, acts of mercy, or public activism? How do we provide a channel for the Holy Spirit to make this deeply mysterious yet magnificently understandable news real in all places and for each successive generation?</p>
<p class="text">There is nothing new about ...</p>
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from<br />
<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/SDIP8sGv63o/lost-in-translation-language-evangelism-living-word.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/SDIP8sGv63o/lost-in-translation-language-evangelism-living-word.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-51174612240024321182019-04-22T21:31:00.001-07:002019-04-22T21:31:01.757-07:00Romans 14:11“It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’””<br />
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from<br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=Romans%2014:11">https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=Romans%2014:11</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-68559067508835359512019-04-22T18:07:00.001-07:002019-04-22T18:07:30.279-07:00The Evolution of Morality and Theistic Evolutionists“It wasn’t God who introduced us to morality; rather, it was the other way around. God was put into place to help us live the way we felt we ought to.” – Frans de Waal In my previous article, I wrote about how morality (or at least the mechanics of morality) are clearly evolved and […]<br />
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from<br />
<a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/23/the-evolution-of-morality-and-theistic-evolutionists/">https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/23/the-evolution-of-morality-and-theistic-evolutionists/</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-38117305079250117322019-04-22T16:08:00.001-07:002019-04-22T16:08:28.884-07:00Across 27 Countries, Most Don’t Mind More Religion in Society<p class="deck">Pew survey of 30,000 people finds a median of 39% favor, 13% oppose a “more important role for religion.”</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90383.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">Despite signs of increasing secularism in the United States, far more Americans favor an increased role for religion in society than oppose it.</p>
<p class="text">According to a massive new report from the Pew Research Center that queried more than 30,000 people across 27 countries, almost three times as many Americans say they would view “a more important role for religion” in the US as a positive change (51%) versus a negative change (18%).</p>
<p class="text">In general, that sentiment is shared around the globe—at the same rate. Across all countries surveyed, a median of 39 percent of respondents favor religion becoming more important in society, while only 13 percent oppose it.</p>
<p class="text">Only 5 of the 27 countries surveyed have populations in which those opposed to religion playing a more important role outnumber those in favor. All 5 are in Europe: Sweden (51%), France (47%), the Netherlands (45%), Germany (35%), and Spain (38%), where an openly <a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/9204/voting-in-of-new-pm-leaves-church-in-spain-on-the-ropes-" class="">atheist prime minister</a> was elected last year amid concerns over his vows to remove religious symbolism from institutions and religion from school curriculums.</p>
<p class="text">In the African nations of Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Tunisia, along with other countries in the global south such as Indonesia and Brazil, the idea of religion gaining more importance in society is viewed favorably by large majorities of the population.</p>
<p class="text">Pew highlighted one country where views vary by religion: Nigeria, which continues to be rocked by <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/november/nigeria-fulani-boko-haram-no-cheeks-left-to-turn.html?share=acwn3C0u4xre4jOi7p0gHYv3IzzMthv9" target="_blank" class="">deadly sectarian conflict</a>.</p>
<p class="text">“The vast majority of Nigerian Muslims (88%) are in favor of a more important role for religion, while a smaller majority of Christians (61%) say the same,” stated researchers. “However, it’s important to note that roughly a quarter of Christian respondents ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/WfjSXRW6vjw/pew-global-importance-religion-diversity-gender-family.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/WfjSXRW6vjw/pew-global-importance-religion-diversity-gender-family.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-66446286116900038472019-04-22T10:53:00.017-07:002019-04-22T10:53:21.584-07:00Repenting of Identity Politics<p class="deck">New Zealand revealed the tragic logical end of evils like Christian Nationalism.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90321.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">The March massacre of 50 Muslims during worship in New Zealand was first and foremost a human tragedy, one felt deeply around the world. Unfortunately the massacre also signaled a political tragedy, displaying the logical end to a type of engagement increasingly defining the public square: identity politics.</p>
<p class="text">As British columnist Brendan O’Neill <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/03/15/new-zealand-the-barbarism-of-identity-politics/" class="">put it</a>, “Increasingly, it feels like the New Zealand atrocity is what happens when the politics of identity, the reduction of everyone to cultural or racial creatures whose relationship with other cultural and racial cultures must be monitored and managed, comes to be the only game in public life.”</p>
<p class="text">The simplest definition of identity politics is summarized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics" class="">at Wikipedia</a>: “a tendency of people sharing a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity to form exclusive political alliances, instead of engaging in traditional broad-based party politics, or promote their particular interests without regard for interests of a larger political group.” Adherents have no interest in broad-based politics because they believe that no other group can empathize sufficiently with them to truly understand their group. Only one born into the group identity, or who becomes “woke” through a kind of revelation, truly knows the score.</p>
<p class="text">Without genuine understanding between groups, the only way to gain political influence is through the raw use of power. Political power for those who are patient. Violence for those who are not. But the bottom line is the same: It’s about and only about gaining power for the benefit of your group and at the expense of other groups. This is not to suggest that every current advocate of identity politics champions ...</p>
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from<br />
<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Kz1GEYU975s/christian-nationalism-repenting-of-identity-politics.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Kz1GEYU975s/christian-nationalism-repenting-of-identity-politics.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-72922294670112932372019-04-22T10:53:00.015-07:002019-04-22T10:53:20.894-07:00Introducing CT's New President<p class="deck">Unbeknownst to me, I began recruiting my successor six years ago.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90359.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">I’m so glad God doesn’t operate on my timetable. The year was 2013. The place: Harvard Yard. I found myself sitting over coffee with someone who had impressed me enough during the previous three years that I was about to offer him a position on CT’s executive team. The role was completely new; I had created it specifically for him in hopes that he might bring to the ministry new ideas for missional expansion and financial growth.</p>
<p class="text">Job description in hand, I put the full court press on this prospective new employee, confident that a “yes” was forthcoming. But no sooner was my pitch delivered than I heard: “Harold, I’d love to be a part of your team, and the role fits me perfectly. But now is simply not the time.” So much for my salesmanship!</p>
<p class="text">Fast forward almost six years to February of this year, when the Christianity Today board of directors was meeting in Dallas to consider that same man as my successor. They voted unanimously to ask Tim Dalrymple to be CT’s next president and CEO. And this time, Tim said yes!</p>
<p class="text">At the end of my 35 years serving here—12-plus of those in the “corner office”—I couldn’t imagine a better way to “sign off” this portion of my kingdom service. Tim will bring an impressive array of gifts to his new role, including an entrepreneurial drive, a digital-native mindset, and an immense intellectual and editorial capacity.</p>
<p class="text">After graduating from Stanford with a double major in philosophy and religious studies, Tim earned an MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in modern Western religious thought at Harvard University. Along the way, he also served in youth ministry, prison chaplaincy, and graduate and faculty ...</p>
<p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/may/introducing-christianity-today-new-president.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Flm-3D8Cjjw/introducing-christianity-today-new-president.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/Flm-3D8Cjjw/introducing-christianity-today-new-president.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-16394006435041859742019-04-22T10:53:00.013-07:002019-04-22T10:53:20.205-07:00Of Truth-Telling and Bridge-Building<p class="deck">How Jesus modeled relationships of surprising frankness and trust.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90357.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">When I first moved from Missouri to Tennessee, I was welcomed by sweet tea, potluck dinners, and people waiting to hold doors for each other. I’m grateful to have soaked in the warmth of Southern hospitality all these years. The shadow side of Southernness, however, is that sometimes I wonder if people say what they really mean. Admittedly, I too have sugar-coated the truth. But I want to speak the truth in love, and I want to hear the truth in love.</p>
<p class="text">When I read the gospels, I’m refreshed by the language Jesus uses with his friends. It makes me want to be a better friend. But I’m also startled: When I read his conversations with Peter or with the disciples or the woman at the well, I realize that I have a lot to learn about telling the truth. Jesus not only spoke frankly but encouraged his friends to do the same.</p>
<p class="text">Consider Thomas, after the Resurrection: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). My discomfort with this demanding statement probably has more to do with my own doubt than with Thomas’s confrontational personality. (Here in the South, disappointments are best kept hidden.) But Thomas speaks up. Jesus graciously hears him and invites him deeper in: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (v. 27).</p>
<p class="text">What makes this kind of mutual forthrightness possible, I believe, is hinted at in 1 John: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (3:18). Whole heaps of words can amount to nothing, but in relationships forged of authenticity and deeds, even a few ...</p>
<p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/may/truth-telling-bridge-building-sandra-mccracken.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/DDSIXdFGYlQ/truth-telling-bridge-building-sandra-mccracken.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/DDSIXdFGYlQ/truth-telling-bridge-building-sandra-mccracken.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-37925281881764569342019-04-22T10:53:00.011-07:002019-04-22T10:53:19.278-07:00I Marked People for Death. Jesus Marked Me for Life.<p class="deck">How a Latino gang leader found salvation in prison.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90326.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text"><span class="dropcap">I</span>n prison, I was a shot caller.</p>
<p class="text">Shot callers have an elevated rank in the gang world. They are the power-brokers who determine who gets hurt (or killed) and who doesn’t. They command respect.</p>
<p class="text">I started down this path as a teenager in South-Central Los Angeles, as a leader in the Rockwood Street Locos. I led the way when we invaded homes, broke into cars, ransacked convenience stores, and stabbed rival gang members. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the streets were bloody. Most of the time, it was kill or be killed.</p>
<p class="text">Eventually, the LAPD caught up with me. I was sentenced to nearly 13 years for second-degree murder—along with 52 counts of armed robbery. I actually breathed a sigh of relief that those were the only charges the cops could pin on me.</p>
<h4 class="subhead">Life Was Very Cheap</h4>
<p class="text">While awaiting transfer to New Folsom State Prison—a Level IV maximum security prison near Sacramento, California—I was housed with 120 murderers and violent criminals inside Pitchess Detention Center, north of Los Angeles.</p>
<p class="text">At Pitchess, we segregated ourselves: blacks aligning with blacks, whites with whites, and Latinos with Latinos. Several dudes from two long-established gangs, 18th Street and Florencia 13, approached me about becoming a shot caller there.</p>
<p class="text">One of my responsibilities was the control and distribution of shanks, the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner. I slept with all 13 of them under my mattress. When a riot went off, I made sure the right people got shanks. There were many violent upheavals at Pitchess, and inmates got stabbed and killed all the time. All it took was a wrong look at the wrong person, and you were done for. Life was very cheap.</p>
<p class="text">After about six months, I was transferred to New ...</p>
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from<br />
<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/CZo5Motp7Nw/casey-diaz-shot-caller-marked-people-death-gang-leader.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/CZo5Motp7Nw/casey-diaz-shot-caller-marked-people-death-gang-leader.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-60389981601084271722019-04-22T10:53:00.009-07:002019-04-22T10:53:18.451-07:00Bringing a Tent Peg to a Sword Fight<p class="deck">Why God sends his people into battle armed with the tools of everyday life.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90354.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text"><span class="dropcap">I</span>n the first Battle of Armageddon, the enemy commander was killed with camping equipment. Speculation about the next round has been the stuff of bestselling books and blockbuster movies, replete with speculation about a world government, flying locust-scorpion warships, bar codes, conspiracies, the EU, nuclear weapons, and a giant meteor steaming toward earth with Bruce Willis on board.</p>
<p class="text">But the first time a war was fought at Har-Magedon (the hill of Megiddo), the decisive blow was struck with the most everyday objects imaginable. Sisera, commander of the mighty Canaanite armies, had his head crushed by Jael, a tent-dwelling woman wielding a mallet and a tent peg (Judges 4:17–22).</p>
<p class="text">It’s a striking story in many ways. A woman, Deborah, is judging Israel, which is unusual in itself. The man charged with leading the Israelite army, Barak, refuses to fight unless she goes with him. Israel wins the battle despite overwhelming odds. When the victory is celebrated in song (Judges 5), the main characters are (again) three women: Deborah, described as “a mother in Israel,” the mallet-wielding Jael, and Sisera’s luridly vile mother. And the peg through the temple is pretty unforgettable.</p>
<p class="text">Yet this story also forms part of a recurring pattern in Scripture, in which Israel defeats her enemies with tools instead of weapons. In this case, Israel has no shields or spears but conquers, instead, with a peg and a “workman’s hammer” (5:26). Another judge, Shamgar, defeats the Philistines with a cattle prod (3:31). Gideon wins with jars and trumpets (7:19–23). The Philistine king Abimelek is killed by a millstone being thrown over the wall (9:53), the second time in five chapters that an obscure ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/7W9nvUp0gqI/bringing-tent-peg-to-sword-fight.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/7W9nvUp0gqI/bringing-tent-peg-to-sword-fight.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-20756194532723233592019-04-22T10:53:00.007-07:002019-04-22T10:53:17.736-07:00Fitness Trackers, Dating Apps, and Other Ladders to Nowhere<p class="deck">Why secular substitutes for religion will always leave us exhausted and unhappy.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90332.jpeg?w=460" />
<p class="text"><span class="dropcap">I</span> wasn’t sure about reviewing this book, which the author, David Zahl, calls <span class="citation">Seculosity</span>. As you might guess, the term is a mashup of “religiosity” and “secularism.” Surely, I thought, this can’t be another screed against the creep of secularism into our churches. I could already hear it: <em>What do you expect when you let the walls down and anything goes?</em> Alcohol, movies, dancing. Where’s the line anymore? But once I actually read the subtitle (“How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do About It”) and the table of contents, I about-faced. What could be better than confirmation of my own observations about our culture’s false idols? I’m in!</p>
<p class="text">For centuries, some humanists have promised that once we throw off the fetters of religion and its attendant guilt, we’ll be liberated to enter a new era of human flourishing. But that’s not happening. While capital-R Religion, institutionalized religion, is famously declining, small-r religion, what Zahl calls “replacement religion,” is more than filling the void. Rather than slipping the bonds of religion’s quest for righteousness, we’ve tightened the harness and shifted the venue from church to . . . well, nearly everywhere else.</p>
<p class="text">The book has nine chapters, each dealing with a specific manifestation of seculosity: In order, they are Busyness, Romance, Parenting, Technology, Work, Leisure, Food, Politics, and lastly, Jesusland. Zahl’s thesis is clear: “The book sets out to look at how the promise of salvation has fastened onto more everyday pursuits like work, exercise, and romance—and how it’s making us anxious, ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/EPOhDHyFvI0/david-zahl-seculosity-ladders-nowhere.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/EPOhDHyFvI0/david-zahl-seculosity-ladders-nowhere.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-9873755387249211552019-04-22T10:53:00.005-07:002019-04-22T10:53:16.998-07:00The Most Effective Response to Poverty? Worshipping the True God<p class="deck">Even more than better systems and better policies, we need better theology.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90356.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text"><span class="dropcap">W</span>e all have stories that frame our everyday world, stories that illuminate the good, true, and beautiful life we long to experience. But what if these stories rely on underdeveloped or badly distorted notions of goodness, truth, and beauty? What would that mean for human flourishing, particularly for the most vulnerable members of our communities?</p>
<p class="text">In their insightful book, <span class="citation">Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream</span>, economist Brian Fikkert and theologian Kelly Kapic tackle these essential questions. The core reason our efforts to alleviate poverty fail, they argue, is not because we design flawed systems but because we proceed from flawed stories.</p>
<p class="text">The authors confront the impoverished stories of Western naturalism and evangelical Gnosticism that muddy our perception of what makes for flourishing lives and communities. They examine the happiness paradox at the heart of contemporary Western society: Even as we enjoy greater wealth than ever before, we haven’t enjoyed corresponding gains in personal and communal well-being. By many important measures, in fact, our lives are increasingly fragile and broken. Fikkert and Kapic show that human flourishing requires something more than expressive individualism, personal comfort, and material affluence—something more, in other words, than the American Dream.</p>
<p class="text">In critiquing Western naturalism, the authors point to sociologist Charles Taylor’s concept of the “immanent frame” and its soul-smothering emphasis on the here and now, which blinds us to God’s presence in the world and encourages a perilous Sunday-to-Monday gap. “It’s like we live in two dimensions rather than three,” Fikkert and Kapic write. ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/5jjY5wI3zSU/becoming-whole-brian-fikkert-kelly-kapic-american-dream.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/5jjY5wI3zSU/becoming-whole-brian-fikkert-kelly-kapic-american-dream.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-68824892237943246392019-04-22T10:53:00.003-07:002019-04-22T10:53:16.164-07:00Why I Always Pray at the End of the Day<p class="deck">We didn't accomplish everything we should have. God reminds us we didn't need to.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90337.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text"><span class="dropcap">O</span>ne of my pastor friends told me he gets genuinely sad every evening because there’s always so much more he wants to do with the day. I suspect we’re all something like this. The evening brings me face to face with the reality of my limited life. There’s so much we wanted to do or at least that we felt we should do.</p>
<p class="text">We’re frustrated because we had no time for free time. Or we’re embarrassed because we squandered it all on free time.</p>
<p class="text">The evening, then, can be a time of severe self-judgment. I often find myself lying in bed and facing the reality that I spent the whole day trying to justify my existence on earth. The scary reality hangs from the ceiling like a bulb that won’t turn off. <em>Does any of it matter?</em></p>
<p class="text">That’s a worrisome thought, and because of it, I want to tune everything out. And many of us do. A drink sounds nice; two sound better. Sex sounds good; porn is easier. A conversation would help, but binging on TV will let me tune out. Catching up on reading would be restful; Twitter has some notifications that are probably more urgent. Lauren and I should spend some time talking; talking is hard, and there’s a podcast of a sermon that everyone said we should listen to.</p>
<p class="text">The exhaustion of the day places us into a twilight where it isn’t easy to make the right decisions. Because our bodies and our minds and our souls are all bound up together, we have trouble making choices. The business world calls it “decision fatigue.” The evening is a time of vulnerability. We haven’t spent the day so much as the day has spent us. When our exhaustion gives way to our addictions, we’re exposed for who we really are.</p>
<p class="text">This is where an evening prayer can make one last ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/eJWcQ-SLOSw/common-rule-habits-purpose-justin-whitmel-earley.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/eJWcQ-SLOSw/common-rule-habits-purpose-justin-whitmel-earley.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-68035172494198213432019-04-22T10:53:00.001-07:002019-04-22T10:53:15.412-07:00Interview: Lessons on Christian Rhetoric from Five of its Greatest Practitioners<p class="deck">If the enemies of truth employ the arts of persuasion, then lovers of truth have no choice but to employ them more effectively.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90341.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="intro"><em>Speaking the truth in love</em> (Eph. 4:15) may be one of the most misapplied biblical injunctions of our day. We use it to justify blunt commentary and harsh judgment, claiming a motive of love for God or the recipient. Too often, though, we’re just sidestepping kindness or humility. But what if we didn’t have to sacrifice one for the other? In <span class="citation">Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church</span>, James E. Beitler III shares a recipe for communication that’s persuasive, effective, and transformative. <span class="citation">Persuasion</span> podcast co-host Erin Straza spoke with Beitler about the power of rhetoric to bind our worship with our witness in a world that’s desperate for both.</p>
<p class="question">In the book, you identify the key communication skills of five renowned Christian thinkers (C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, and Marilynne Robinson), and you match them with the church’s liturgical calendar. How does the book’s structure help us see connections between the rhetoric of worship and witness?</p>
<p class="answer">We are in a moment that’s seeing a renewed interest in liturgy. Thanks in part to the work of James K. A. Smith and others, I began thinking about the ways in which liturgy involves not just spiritual formation and virtue but also our witness. My hope is to prompt readers to think about the ways in which their own worship practices, their own participation in the life of the church, can shape their own forms of witness. How can we present the gospel in ways that are consistent with what we’re doing every Sunday?</p>
<p class="question">In your introduction, you mention that being a master of rhetoric is not at odds to authentic Christian witness. Why is this a common concern?</p>
<p class="answer">The word rhetoric is often used pejoratively. ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/3lsT8RHciwE/seasoned-speech-james-beitler-rhetoric.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/3lsT8RHciwE/seasoned-speech-james-beitler-rhetoric.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-78951298112923634592019-04-22T08:28:00.001-07:002019-04-22T08:28:04.441-07:00Mastering the Fundamentals of Mission<p class="deck">If you can’t do the fundamentals with excellence, then you will never be successful—at least not for long.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90355.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">Every coach knows the value of fundamentals. Not only does each season start with the basics, but coaches rehearse them over again as the building blocks of the game. Many early season practices have started with an exasperated coach restating the basics with a Lombardi-like version of, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”</p>
<p class="text">Form, stance, positioning.</p>
<p class="text">Stickhandling.</p>
<p class="text">Blocking.</p>
<p class="text">Hitting the cutoff man. Every time.</p>
<p class="text">It’s skills taught to small children when learning their sport that, years later, will separate the winners from the losers at every level. If you can’t do the fundamentals with excellence, then you will never be successful—at least not for long.</p>
<p class="text">Could the same be true in our efforts at evangelism and disciple-making? Are there certain basic fundamentals that we must master in order to expect missional impact?</p>
<p class="text">Likely.</p>
<p class="text">Easter Monday provides a good opportunity for reflection on the basics. For many, this weekend was a special weekend. It was different – bigger than most Sundays. There’s something stunningly spectacular about reflecting on a vacant tomb and a triumphant Savior. And most churches attempted to take advantage of the spiritual opportunity that yesterday provided.</p>
<p class="text">But, on the back side of such a weekend of celebration we are left to consider the missionary implications of the resurrection for every other day of the year. The resurrection stands as a permanent reality that must shape the living priorities of every kingdom disciple. We can’t merely swing hard for a single day of hyper-intentionality in missionary action and then wait another year for a suitable plate appearance. In fact, the effectiveness of yesterday’s missionary output was largely predicated on a churches’ ...</p>
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<a href="http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/pIGQNKw1wFU/mastering-fundamentals-of-mission.html">http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/pIGQNKw1wFU/mastering-fundamentals-of-mission.html</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-45768858298592915192019-04-22T06:47:00.001-07:002019-04-22T06:47:43.366-07:00The Suffering Servant Only Makes Sense in the Context of the Trinity<p class="deck">The historical Christian doctrine helps us to see the goodness of God in Good Friday.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/89942.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">Good Friday sermons aren’t always easy to sit through. They’re even tougher to preach. Never have I been more moved or more likely to squirm in my seat in church than on Good Friday. Perhaps that’s because they invite us to sit in the midnight passages of Scripture, caught up with suffering, death, and the purposes of God. For many of us, it is a trial to read Good Friday texts and still see God as good.</p>
<p class="text">Might I suggest that the careful use of historical Christian doctrine can help?</p>
<p class="text">Take Isaiah 53’s shadowy prophecy of the Suffering Servant. In its own context, mystery lies thick around the Servant. A disturbing portrait of travail and torment mystifies and perplexes, even as it enthralls. In the earlier Songs of the Servant in Isaiah, he is clearly a communal figure for Israel in exile. But in this chapter, the communal figure becomes a concrete individual—an enigmatic and tragic one. Despised and rejected by men, oppressed and led away to death by his enemies, he seems among men the most to be pitied.</p>
<p class="text">The worst of his lot lies not in the abuse by his enemies, or even the rejection of his friends—it is his treatment by God that is most unnerving. Even though he was innocent and there was no “deceit in his mouth,” it seems “it was the Lord’s will to crush him” in order to make “his life an offering for sin” and bring about the salvation of many (Isa. 53:10).</p>
<p class="text">But how could it serve the purposes of Israel’s God to see this righteous one crushed? What does it tell us about the way God treats his servants, his elect? These are truly dark sayings. A gleam of light begins to shine, though, not only when we recognize their fulfillment in Jesus, the ...</p>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-41794611458329922212019-04-21T22:37:00.001-07:002019-04-21T22:37:24.101-07:00Morality as Evolved; What about God?I am first going to furnish you with an excerpt from Robert Sapolsky’s Behave [UK here] before discussing the content within a theological context. Of course, what Sapolsky has to say is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it serves s a good introduction to the topic. AGAIN WITH BABIES AND ANIMALS Much as infants demonstrate the rudiments […]<br />
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<a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/22/morality-as-evolved-what-about-god/">https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/22/morality-as-evolved-what-about-god/</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-49938629567389810332019-04-21T21:12:00.001-07:002019-04-21T21:12:09.470-07:00Romans 1:20“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”<br />
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from<br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=Romans%201:20">https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NIV&search=Romans%201:20</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-10473610860067031472019-04-21T18:07:00.001-07:002019-04-21T18:07:36.117-07:00Joseph of Arimathea – fact or fiction? Er, fiction.Joseph of Arimathea used to be used by William Lane Craig as a pillar of his truth claims for the Resurrection, itself one of the four cornerstones of his apology. Richard Carrier, amongst others, has provided some very interesting viewpoints on the historicity of this figure (or lack thereof). Craig no longer seems to reference […]<br />
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<a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/21/joseph-of-arimathea-fact-or-fiction-er-fiction-2/">https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2019/04/21/joseph-of-arimathea-fact-or-fiction-er-fiction-2/</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09599685969249761938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513953176693693107.post-54270914726081231252019-04-21T07:42:00.001-07:002019-04-21T07:42:31.084-07:00Easter Bombings Kill 200 in Sri Lanka<p class="deck">Christians end Holy Week shaken after coordinated attacks at three churches and three hotels across the island nation.</p>
<img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/90324.jpg?w=460" />
<p class="text">The joy of Easter quickly turned into terror and grief for Christians in Sri Lanka this morning, where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/asia/sri-lanka-explosion.html" class="">bombers conducted coordinated attacks</a> on at least three churches and three high-end hotels, killing more than 200 people.</p>
<p class="text">The government has urged citizens to resist speculating whether radicalized Muslims are to blame for the violence, which mostly took place in or around the capital city of Colombo. Experts say if the bombings end up being religiously motivated, they represent the bloodiest sectarian attacks in decades in Sri Lanka, where civil war ended in 2009.</p>
<p class="text">At Zion Church, rows of Easter lilies remained in front of a sanctuary as victims fled the blast, leaving behind hymnals, Bibles, and debris across the floor. Initial reports indicated that 25 worshipers had been killed and another 27 injured at Zion—according to its website, a charismatic church that belongs to the Fellowship of Free Churches of Sri Lanka, located on the opposite side of the island in Batticaloa.</p>
<p class="text">Other attacks took place at two Catholic churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, and three hotels in Colombo, all around 8:45 a.m. local time.</p>
<p class="text">St. Sebastian posted a brief plea <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sebastianchurch150/posts/2139189269532076?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBUjTxrLTaINao8F4MxBZ_sPrNm5o3h482Kyui3S9oHtXwX8VFy4Vbj8NagkKdJW0rrRUM-egygE6OYFE9O1vV7wjfOfOcdWAa2q6LWdIbiqDgAatD-n2a55vrN9kb8Y4R8ZJd9mBGpWqqTZ1TvUktWRD3ioS7wEzH4s6uzn_0zhVnbYPqTihxCcPHaEJh2lLAY7jgnW9DgdAnDDcIEmPTZybM3BROdkZCuAWCzJt6h4ouqECYkj9ObBD2yhwlleCfYBT1_puSzo5rjqSTUpZoVwSNL-DzJXszV8zw5Nn1WJcd9du6CWWPOeF8M-MDzcS5Frb7yenFnqtC4e7nqmuP5uA&__tn__=-R" class="">on Facebook</a> inviting the community to “come and help” after the bombing, along with photos of rows of disheveled pews covered in roof tiles, its ceiling blown out, and blood splattered on the walls.</p>
<p class="text">“In three decades of war, this scale of attack has never happened,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/asia/sri-lanka-explosion.html" class="">said</a> Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in The <em>New York Times</em>. “In terms of serious, religion-based violence, we haven’t really seen that.”</p>
<p class="text">The government has arrested seven people in connection ...</p>
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