Culture - What in the world is going on?!
Exclusivity
Author: Rustin Rawlings, Kaleo Church
Personally, what amazes me most about Jesus (second only to his death, burial, and resurrection for our sins) is how counter-cultural he was and still is. If ever asked why Jesus were executed, beyond the theology, an answer as simple as those two words would suffice. Even more amazingly, 2,000 years later he is as untamable and causes as much controversy as ever. Jesus' most recent counter-cultural moment hit me as I was looking over the results of a study done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life of over 35,000 adults who were surveyed about their faith and eternal life. Most notably, the study found that 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said that many religions could lead to eternal life. Of that 57 percent, 82 percent were what the study labeled “mainline Protestants." (In Scripture, it is made clear that Jesus is the only way to attain salvation and is our only hope for Heaven. Acts 4:12, John 14:6).
The Formula for Self-Improvement
Author: Rustin Rawlings, Kaleo Church
The Formula for Self-Improvement is easy and you don't have to read every self-help book to figure it out. I sure haven't read them all, as a matter of fact, I haven't read any. Why waste my time? Based on interviews with the authors and book reviews, you get a clear picture of what they're going to say. When it comes to books like these, the trick is not what you say but how you say it.
This all started by my stumbling upon a FOX News article titled "Is Oprah Starting Her Own Cult?" Given my deep rooted dislike for Oprah Winfrey (the subject for a future post) plus my fascination with cults, I was immediately intrigued. Come to find out, though, it's only another scheme to dupe people out of their dough by dressing up the old formula for self-improvement.
For this newest scheme, Winfrey is the pusher and an author named Eckhart Tolle is the costume designer, dressing up the self-improvement formula in an outfit that would make any effeminate, pretentious, New York fashion nut drool so much that it would become the latest trend.
How Focus on the Family Ruined the Gospel
Author: Michael Dennis, Founder and Director/Go, Get, Scatter
On their website Focus on the Family states their vision as, "Redeeming families, communities, and societies worldwide through Christ." They state their guiding principles as evangelism, marriage, children, etc., however, it is possible they might be hindering the gospel more than redeeming culture through Christ.
Simply stated, they are calling culture to focus on the family. Seems it is going in the wrong direction right out of the gate. Obviously they came into existence in response to the 1980's when families focused on work, accomplishments, and climbing the corporate ladder. You can't fault that generation really, because they were a product of parents who went through the depression, World War and they were the first generation in the United States to do significantly better than their parents. They were college educated, women had rights, duel income families, and purchasing items through credit was becoming the norm. They could have bigger houses, bigger cars, greater vacations, and they left the home and the raising of their children to baby sitters, latch keys, and television. As a product of the 80's it really wasn't that bad. Between the hours of 3:00pm - 6:00pm I got to do whatever I wanted, and I thought that was great. Nevertheless, this cultural trend left a void in the family, an absence of morals, and an avoidance of church.