Coram Deo Blog
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29 April 2010 at 7:55 am by Bob Thune · culture, faith, religion
I do not know Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University. But he is to be applauded for arguing that the pluralist emperor has no clothes.
In a recent article in the Boston Globe (apparently a teaser for a new book he’s written), Prothero avers: “Among multiculturalists, the tendency is to pretend that the differences between religions are more apparent than real… But pretending that the world’s religions are the same does not make our world safer. Like all forms of ignorance, it makes our world more dangerous, and more deadly… Both tolerance and respect are empty virtues until we actually know whatever it is we are supposed to be tolerating or respecting.”
Read the entire article and enjoy the clarity of Prothero’s common-sense observations.
HT: Nathan Bliss
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4 January 2010 at 10:02 am by Bob Thune · culture, religion
A church planter friend in Hollywood posted a great op-ed piece from the LA Times this morning about America’s obsession with individualism – and how it’s affecting our religious views. It’s a very insightful piece. Here’s an excerpt:
I once asked my Aunt Mary what her beliefs were on the subject of life after death. She said: “Whatever Jews believe, that’s what I believe.”
Aunt Mary’s view was that there were people whose job it was to consider such things. She was not such a person herself, but she was completely confident that the guys assigned that task were doing their job, and it was all written down in a book somewhere. If you were sufficiently interested, you could look it up.
This view is in decline. A new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life concludes: “Large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse traditions. Many also blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. And sizable minorities of all major U.S. religious groups say they have experienced supernatural phenomena, such as being in touch with the dead or with ghosts.”
What is striking about the Pew study is not the prevalence of superstition and hocus-pocus, alarming as that is. It is the feeling that we are free to choose from a broad, cafeteria-style menu of superstitious hocus-pocus. Charles Blow in the New York Times called it the construction of “Mr. Potato Head-like spiritual identities.”
read the rest
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21 September 2008 at 8:20 am by Bob Thune · religion
Anyone who wishes to deal honestly with pluralism – and with the objection that no one religion has exclusive truth – must be familiar with the work of John Hick, an eminent philosopher of religion who is the leading academic mind on the subject. A few years ago, I spent the better part of two weeks in the library, immersing myself in Hick’s work and analyzing his thought. I quoted briefly from Hick in my sermon this morning; but those readers who favor a more scholarly inquiry may benefit from reading this research paper.
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11 April 2006 at 12:37 pm by Bob Thune · religion
You probably heard the news stories last week about Abdul Rahman, the man who was sentenced to death in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity. He fled the country and eventually found asylum in Italy.
What you might not have heard was the response of Abdul Raoulf, a senior Muslim cleric who had been branded by many as a ‘moderate’:
“…A man who converts has to be killed. Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be insulted… They should cut off [Rahman's] head, and pull him to pieces so there’s nothing left.”
Which is less tolerant: a Christian who pleads with people to turn to Christ as the only way to eternal salvation, or a Muslim who advocates beheading and torturing Christians to help God save face?
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22 February 2006 at 6:05 am by Bob Thune · religion
The violent protests that erupted around the world earlier this month over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad showed the essence of the difference between Christianity and Islam. “The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted.” No one has written more lucidly about the contrast than John Piper. Follow this link, read… and worship.
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27 December 2005 at 2:32 pm by Bob Thune · music, religion
Discomfort from Bono’s words at the U2 concert a couple weeks ago is still gnawing at me. I’ve been pondering the experience ever since the show ended. In a previous post, I suggested that Bono’s message (that Jesus, Mohammed, and Jews are all ‘sons of Abraham’) was political in nature, yet could be interpreted wrongly by those steeped in a pluralist point of view. But maybe I’m wrong.
Derrick pointed me to this insightful article by a concert-goer whose experience (and angst) mirrors my own. See what you think.
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16 December 2005 at 8:34 am by Bob Thune · music, religion
So the u2 show last night was… pretty amazing. There’s a reason they are one of the best bands of our time, and their excellence shone through in every aspect. However, I was a little troubled by Bono’s rhetoric during the show which seemed to imply that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were all valid ways to God.
He never actually said that. He was speaking against war, and taken in their proper context, his words were simply a plea for Christians, Jews, and Muslims to “coexist” in peace (his words). However, for an audience already immersed in pluralism by the popular media and the culture around them, his words had the effect of blurring the lines. I was disappointed.
He redeemed himself by ending the show with “Yahweh” and “40.” At the end of “40″, Bono took off his cross necklace, hung it on the microphone stand, and left a solitary spotlight shining on it as he walked off the stage. It was a clear attempt to leave the show’s focus on Christ. Unfortunately, his earlier words had the effect (to an audience without a proper worldview) of making Jesus one of many instead of the unique Savior of the world.
Here’s the set list they played:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Original of the Species
Sometimes you Can’t Make it On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One
First Encore:
Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You
Second Encore:
Stuck in a Moment
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
40
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4 October 2005 at 7:01 am by Bob Thune · religion, theology
Last Sunday night (10/2) we considered what it means that God is primary. In the course of our teaching time, we listened to a quote from John Piper about the supremacy of God in spelling. Is there a God-centered answer when your third-grader asks, “Why should I care about spelling?” Piper suggests yes: spelling matters because we are made in the image of God, and God is a communicative God, and we have the most important message in the universe to deliver to people, and we shouldn’t put “spelling stumbling blocks” in the way of that message. To suggest that your kid should learn to spell so he can be successful in life and make more money is, to use Piper’s words, “Godless” and “blasphemous.”
In light of the supremacy of God in spelling, does anyone find it interesting that Arabic names have no correct spelling? Mohammed, Muhammad… it doesn’t matter. There is no right way to spell it. That may or may not mean anything… my linguist friends will have to render their judgment. But it’s at least “anecdotally interesting” that an idolatrous religion has no correct way to spell the name of its Prophet.
Does anyone have trouble with the fact that I just called Islam idolatrous? I flinched even as I wrote it. Just goes to show how much our pluralistic culture has pushed us toward a false definition of “tolerance.” There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved – Acts 4:12.
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