Emerging Africa

Will anyone still be celebrating Christmas this year? I have been sent a ton of emails from Christmas-bashing Christian mates who are boycotting it because it's a pagan, commericalized holiday. I agree that the roots are pagan (like all of my favorite holidays are!) but since no one will be blood-letting and making sacrifices to whatever Roman deity the holiday commemorates, I think we can safely assume God doesn't blink an eye when we put up a little tree.

I have been, for the first time in my life, the subject of a cyber bully. A gentlemen (an elder, no less) in my old church sent out an e-mail about me. I won't get into the finer details, but sufficed to say everyone I know received this mail and failed to object. Basically, this man, a former close friend of ours (danced at our wedding, visited to and fro, held him whilst he cried-close friend!) saw it fit to criticise me for - of all things - ineffective evangelism.

I quote: "How are you going to get people to listen to you if you could not even bring someone to church? How many people did you neglect to meet while writing your 600 page "thesis". I wonder?"

Is Creationism dead? Someone recently sent one of those endearing chain letter jobs with pictures of a gentleman who actually reconstructed the Ark "acc to the Bible". The one Dominee responded saying that this was proof of God's devotion and might, etc etc. The others all bashed him saying that the man wasted his time and money. The reason being the story of God starts with Abraham - the other 11 chapters or whatever is a mere myth.

Dr P Fourie wrote:

"It is actually quite faithless to build a replica of the Ark. It's as good as saying, "I'll believe it when I see it" Show me God, and I'll believe in him!" It's the equivalent of building a idol, because the story of the ark belongs to ancient history - in the time before there was a recorded history as we know it today.

I saw an interview a while ago that stuck by my. Rob Bell was being asked about the emerging movement.

Rob Bell: "We don't ever use that word [emerging] because in our particular context unnecessarily creating labels - Are you 'in'? Are you 'out'? Are you one of them or not? seems to work against the spirit of Jesus."

Interviewer: "But how do you feel when it is used of you? Do you feel uncomfortable with that tag?"

Rob Bell: "Yes. Yeah. Yes."

Interviewer: "Just because its a tag and you don't want any tag?

I recently came across an article by a psychologist, Doug Soderstrom, titled: A Fundamental Evil: Why Christian Fundamentalists are the Most Evil People in the World.

I was born into a good, Calvinist, Dutch Reform family. Although I went to dull, dry services and although I kicked the pew in front of me until it was time to go home, I used to pretend that the sunlight falling through the stained glass windows onto the bench was actually God himself coming to sit next to me. I saw green, red and yellow slithers that danced and I believed that that was God.
I don't think that I was wrong.