As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
My thoughts below predate COVID-19, masks, hydroxychloroquine, or churches defying public health emergency orders. Last fall, different controversies were exposing problems in how believers evaluate conflicting claims and decide what to believe.
But those problems are still with us, and the current raft of controversies is exposing them even more painfully.
“What is really out there is not dependent upon how I feel about it or even how I perceive it, because I am not the author of truth; I am not the one who creates reality. I encounter reality.” - RC Sproul
“Our post-truth age pitches the individual self as the primary source of truth: ‘follow your heart,’ ‘live your truth,’ and so forth….Institutions now exist to merely affirm us, not to form us.” - Brett McCrackin
“Given the cultural challenges facing the church in our day – not only from the outside, but increasingly from within – it is appropriate that we remember some of the keynote truths at the heart of Schaeffer’s work.” - Ref21
“In this election, most conservative Christians supported the policies of President Trump, especially as against those Joe Biden espouses. Most conservative Christians greatly desired the success of the Trump campaign. Those desires now drive a desperate search for any way to make the Trump campaign succeed. How far are you willing to go to see your desires succeed?” - P & D
“…we express ourselves by passing on some claim that we got from someone who agrees with us, and we don’t check it because it’s obviously true. And within minutes scores of our ‘friends’ congratulate us for being so brave and insightful and smart” - Dan Olinger
My thoughts below predate COVID-19, masks, hydroxychloroquine, or churches defying public health emergency orders. Last fall, different controversies were exposing problems in how believers evaluate conflicting claims and decide what to believe.
But those problems are still with us, and the current raft of controversies is exposing them even more painfully.
“While mathematics and other hard sciences were somewhat safe in the postmodernist world, the new post-truth culture has laid waste to them along with everything else.” - Robin Schumacher
“Meanwhile, much of evangelical Christianity has emphasized the therapeutic and emotive experience of faith above the theological ideas that undergird it. Poor catechesis and avoidance of difficult doctrine means that for many Christians, religious identity is only as secure as the feelings that accompany it” - TGC
“Long-running internecine media feuds, emblematic of the degradation of mass media as they are, are merely the smoke set off by the burning desire for one, all-consuming narrative….The only story we need to get straight is the story that really matters. Grounded in that story, the greatest ever told, we can deepen our understanding of ourselves and our world.
Discussion