Einstein the theologian?
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein
The above are quotes from the website of apexchurch.org. This is a church which consists of a network of home-groups. Although they have a monthly gathering for all, their main conception of church occurs in small groups. Check it out. (Thanks to Mike for the recommendation!)
November 2nd, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Hey Denise,
Glad you enjoyed apexchurch.org, here is another notable site worth looking at (http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevecollins/). One additional site I enjoyed (Click Here For Article). It’s a good article written by Tony Campolo – He uses dirty language in sermons… oooooooh!
November 2nd, 2005 at 11:55 pm
Are you talking about where he says emergent Christians won’t damn Ghandi? Or have you witnessed more extreme versions of Campolo-fanity? Also, the article is a nice summation.
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:40 am
In his sermon “The Positive Prophet” Campolo begins by stating, “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a s@!&. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said s@!& than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
November 3rd, 2005 at 5:20 pm
Funny. Not the kids, dying. That’s not funny. Did you see the episode of House M.D. this week where he saves the guy who saves starving children? Funny stuff, but probably only Amy will know what I’m talking about.
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:21 pm
My favorite part was that House and what’s his name were watching the press conference from the room of a patient in a coma. It’s brilliant. Clearly the patient doesn’t care. No one will bother them in there. And they get to watch tv for a while. I like that he does stuff like that. And the apology at the end was pretty good too.
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:27 pm
Yes. He’s a genius. Did you see the episode where he’s eating a sandwich with the comatose guy-resting his sandwich on the guy’s belly. House says he asked the guy if it was ok, and the guy didn’t say no. hahaha. yes, excellent apology. Always try and see if you can get the person to whom you need to apologize to apologize to you.
November 4th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
It was a good episode of House… Ron Livingston was on and made for a good rivalry between house and he. The coma guy scene was funny, the “that’s no TB” into the camera was out of sight, and so was the apology scene in the end… it’s a damn good show…
November 4th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
I’ve been thinking about Tony Compolo’s “The Positive Prophet” expletive deleted that Mike made reference to. I first heard of Compolo in the late 70′s or early 80′s on a Focus on the Family radio broadcast. It was his sermon “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s a Comin’.” I love that sermon. I have a tape of it somewhere. I lost track of Compolo after that. Next thing I heard about him was when his name surfaced in the media during the Monica Lewinsky debacle when he served as a “spiritual counselor” to Clinton. I haven’t read anything he has written (except the article that is posted on this website). Anyhow, I said all that to say that I was positively affected by him way back when, and I don’t know enough about him now to make any kind of a judgement about whether I would agree with him in general or not. But I’ve been wondering to whom that sermon (The Positive Prophet) was delivered? Does he have his own congregation or was he a guest speaker when he delivered it? Seems like he would have needed to know his audience fairly well to predict the positive response he was hoping for. I’m guessing here that he wanted some sort of positive response, rather than to shock for the sake of shocking. Obviously, his intention was to verbally “slap” the listeners awake, to open their eyes to the suffering of innocent children dying from starvation. I’m having a little trouble wondering about the motivation behind it. I don’t know all the particulars. Maybe that was the best way to communicate with the particular group he was addressing. But when I read the words of Jesus (or even C.S. Lewis, or even when I listen to Dennis Prager on the radio–and yeah, I know he’s not a Christian) I never get the sense that a guilting tactic is being used, or a tone of “what in the world is the matter with you–can’t you see what’s going on here and what you should be doing about it?” Maybe the tone of grace and mercy and love surfaced later in the sermon? Or maybe he was talking to a group of religious hypocrites and wanted to vent his “righteous indignation” and figured it was a last ditch effort to get their attention and cause them to repent. I just have no way of knowing without doing some serious research. So, Mike, if you’ve got any more insight on The Positive Prophet sermon, I’d love to hear it.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
Just realized I misspelled Campolo throughout my post. Sorry about that.
November 5th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
I didn’t even realize you misspelled it. Haha. I think the above writers would be in agreement with you about guilt tactics. The episode of House MD being discussed is one in which the patient is a man who ‘saves’ those with TB in Africa. He keeps telling everyone that “while they sleep tonight, 30,000 more children will die.” House takes up the refrain, saying things to the effect of, “Yes, eat some cereal, POOF (snaps his fingers)-two more kids dead! Have this conversation (SNAP) 5 more kids.” And just because profanity could be considered a smaller evil than children dying of malnourishment, perhaps, to be pedantic, two wrongs still don’t make a right? Being controversial is one thing, but if you’ve got a message you really want people to hear, you have to say it so they can listen. Did he want people to learn, or to get offended? Hard to say.