Advocating Christianity?

"What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might be beneficial."
~ T.S. Eliot

Comment: 
Of course Christianity is beneficial.  It is both true and beneficial because God created us and God loves us.  God is a good parent and Christianity is an act of love.
~ Truthful Grace

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Evangelical Protestantism has been one of the most dynamic of Christian movements. Evangelical Protestantism is also one of the most dysfunctional of Christian movements. Our dysfunctions are many, but not necessarily worse than those found in Catholicism or Orthodoxy. But they still deserve our attention. Take this one, which includes a cogent quote by the great theologian Thomas Torrance:

But what has happened in Protestant worship and ministry? Is it not too often the case that the whole life and worship of the congregation revolves around the personality of the minister? He is the one who is in the center; he offers the prayers of the congregation; he it is who mediates "truth" through his personality, and he it is who mediates between the people and God through conducting the worship entirely on his own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of the popular minister where everything centers on him, and the whole life of the congregation is built around him. What is that but Protestant sacerdotalism...?

As with most critiques, it's not true in every respect, but it is true enough to give one pause.

~ from The Galli Report, Weekly Must-Reads from the Editor of Christianity Today, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016

"Not Christian" to build walls, not bridges

Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’

Jim Yardley, Feb. 18, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html

Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. . . .

Mr. Trump has staked out controversial positions on immigration, vowing to force Mexico to build a wall and also increase deportations. He has also made inflammatory comments accusing Mexican immigrants of being rapists and criminals.

Asked whether he would try to influence Catholics in how they vote in the presidential election, Francis said he “was not going to get involved in that” but then repeated his criticism of Mr. Trump, with a caveat.

“I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that,” Francis said. “We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”
. . .

"it was you and the people who love you who put you there"

Taylor Swift, accepting album of the year, calls out Kanye West

Less than a week after West drew backlash for his song Famous, in which he suggested that he made Swift famous by crashing the stage during her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech, the pop star indirectly responded to his diss. Accepting album of the year for her blockbuster 1989, Swift took a moment to address "the young women out there".

"There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame," Swift said. "But if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you're going, you'll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world."

Our presence

"The most precious gift we can offer is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love,

they will bloom like flowers.”

~ Thich Nhat Hahn

Expecting flowers to bloom

“If your heart is a volcano,
how shall you expect flowers to bloom?”

~ Khalil Gibran