“A Christian or a Religious Secularist, which am I?”

Gripped by Grace
Hal

The following couple of paragraphs are in the new book, “The End of Secularism” by Hunter Baker.  I have only read the introduction online but it looks interesting.  The reason I have placed this in my blog is that as I read what he said about himself in his days before he was a Christian I realized he describes many Christians today. 

I hope you will read it and think. 

“I believed in God, but I didn’t see what difference that made to anything outside my private world. Private religion is at the heart of secularism. My relationship with God was simple. If I felt fear, I asked him to protect me. If I wanted, I asked him to provide. His character was not particularly of interest to me. The God who existed in my mind during my life up until college was essentially a cosmic genie.

Beyond the realm of my personal desires and wishes, I saw no place for God other than in ceremonies like baptisms, weddings, and funerals. That god is an accessory to occasions. He is like a magical charm designed to do what we want him to do. There are times when we bring him out with ornaments, bows, and ribbons. Otherwise, we box him up in the attic and only occasionally remember or contemplate him. For me, the private god-in-a-lantern model was the appropriate way to think about God and/or religion.”

 

Chatting # 2

Well… tonight there were 8 of us together (if you can count Lee and Matt 🙂 We had a good time talking about books that we have read and that have affected our lives. An hour sure goes by fast. 🙂 I have added a list of recommeded books on the side-bar. I will add more later. And there are so many… please let me know if you read one that you think I need to add to the list.

Blessings to you all.

On another note…

For those who are prayer warriors… there are some families who have BIG issues going on right now. Please intercede for them. God knows the needs.

Monday Night Chat (04/14/2008)

We will be chatting again tonight. – 8:00 p.m. (CST) Click on the link at the top of the right column. You can sign in with your name… or if you would rather be annonymous – that is fine too. Last week someone signed as “contented” and chatted with us. That is certainly ok. Just come and let’s share together.

This week Hal picked the topic. He is referring back to a post that I wrote on March 2nd on my personal blog. You can read it here. We will begin by talking about different books that we have read that have influenced our lives. Maybe even specific ones on the home. We will try and have somewhat of an agenda. 🙂

Look forward to chatting with you.

Blessings,
DeeDee