Sturtz Stuff

Here we are again in the middle of another Presidential election season. It seems like we just did this not long ago. Regrettably, Presidential elections do not seem to bring out the best in us. We become hyper sensitive to very word and image. It is like all of the sudden we all turn into really bad actors in some soap opera. Issues we thought dead seem to spring back to life. Partnerships/marriages between groups that are often at odds all of the sudden have the marriage we have waited for all soap opera season long.   As we all head into another election season we will be told that voting for this or that person could lead to things like more/less security, more/less abortions, more/less spending, more/less budget cut backs, more/less taxes, more/less kids being educated, more/less gun rights and so on. The list of promises and possible threats that each candidate will use to get your vote will be endless. All of it will be a play for our most obvious and most overlooked sin ...

When the Avengers movie came out I wanted to go see it. I guess it is the kid in me. I saw the movie and enjoyed the special effects, predictable lines and funny moments. The movie is what it is an action flick with lots of special effects. After the movie was over something occurred to me about the characters in the movie. What occurred to me was the isolation of all of the main characters. Captain America, The Hulk, Iron man, Hawkeye, SHEILD and the Black Widow for all of their individual courage, power, wealth and skill are isolated. They have no idea what it means to function as a team much less how to interact with each other. They show no sign of weakness or need for others. In fact the characters would rather fight each other rather than their common foe. For all of their power, ability and skill the characters seem to be motivated more from a sense of unworthiness. Iron Man for all his witty verbal jabs seems to operate out of a sense that he truly does not deserve a team b...

I read this article and thought YES! I too am baffled by Christians who will take the thinnly sliced balogna offered in pop-culture as some deep insight into follow Christ. We live in a society were we think everyones 2 sense is just as good or equal to anothers 2 sense. Yet we walk away with no sense whatsoever of what is real and true. A “Favorite” Pet Peeve: “Asking Oprah (or Dear Abby)…” In a recent column a Christian woman asked “Dear Abby” (Pauline Phillips) about God and homosexuality. Her son came out to her and she was afraid to ask her pastor about God’s attitude toward gay people because she was afraid of what he would say. So she wrote to “Abby” asking her how God views homosexuality. Abby’s response was predictable–that science had shown the Bible to be unreliable on this subject and that entrance to heaven depends on a person’s character only. This illustrates a pattern I see among Americans including many American Christians. The Christian ba...

Here are some good thoughts that I found and thought I would share on Christians and the use of social media.     The Many Faces of Facebook: An Open Letter to Christians Who Use Social Networks by Rob Peterson   There are tons of blogs and articles on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Facebook statuses out there; just ask Google about it. So why am I bothering to offer my perspective on the issue? Well, it’s not that I think I can add any new information to the conversation. However, I would like to address this issue from a Christian perspective, and in particular, I’d like to address it to my Christian friends. With over 900 million users, Facebook has become one of the world’s largest cyber gathering places. It’s a great way to share information, to voice opinions, to have conversations, to promote people/places/things, to stay in touch with long-distance friends, and to connect with people we’ve never met face-to-face. Expressing onese...

Rev Dr John Dickson (Director, Centre for Public Christianity and Senior Research Fellow, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University) speaks about early Christian charity. He provides an overview from the time of the New Testament up to Constantine.

The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. [1] Holyoake was picking up on some of the thinking that emerged out of the Enlightenment and the philosophies of thinkers like René Descartes. Enlightenment thinking, among other aspects, seeks to create a division between “religion” and “secular”. In enlightenment ways of thinking “religion” should remain private because it causes too much conflict between people (The Thirty Years War) and it has not “fixed” the world.   The enlightenment offers a new vision for how the world should operate based on reason. Reason, according to the enlightenment, is not based on any form of tradition – especially any “religious” tradition. This way of thinking is engrained into the western church and society. An outgrowth of this thinking offers people a way to divide to a person’s world into things that are considered “religious” and things that are considered “secular”. For example a person’s wee...

One of my favorite Church Father's isSaint Basil. If he were alive today I can’t help but wonder what label ourculture would attempt to slap on him. Would he be a “compassionate conservative”that fought against false teachings against more “liberal” views or a “bleedingheart liberal” that engaged politics and social reforms for the poor.   Basil was the eldest of nine otherchildren that his parents conceived. Four of Basil's siblings are known byname, and considered to be saints by various Christian traditions. Perhaps themost influential of Basil's siblings was his younger brother Gregory. Gregory wouldeventual be appointed by Bishop Basil to be the Bishop of Nyssa. The oldest ofBasil’s sisters, Marcrina, became a nun and was considered one of the mostremarkable women of the fourth century. She would become the catalytic examplefor Basil to give away his wealth and possessions and join the asceticalmovement later in life. Basil’s family background and influence wou...