The Christian Monist: Ted's Big Adventure

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Ted's Big Adventure

I happened to see the entire Ted Haggard interview tonight with Larry King. I didn't plan on it. I just went to the gym to burn off my morning mocha and there it was. Since I don't have CNN on my home cable, I wasn't even aware that it was coming on.

Apparently there is even a more interesting HBO documentary tonight about Ted . . . but you guessed it, I don't get HBO either. After the treadmill listed the amount of calories burned at 360 (about the number in my mocha) I stopped. I certainly wasn't running for another two hours just to watch HBO.

If anyone out there watch either program, I invite you to write in the comments below . . . before I stick my foot in my mouth. So, what did you think?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: In my mind he is just another fallen pastor...a victim of his own sinfulness.

It boggles my mind why these guys get put up on such high pedastals to begin with.

In many churches we have a cult of personality.

This is what happens when you rip out the altar and make it into a stage.; January 30, 2009 at 2:36 PM
Anonymous said...: I heard this song get quoted a lot dissing Obama fanboys during the 2008 elections. I think it has application to Ted's Big Adventure (italicized sections for emphasis):

Cult of Personality
by Living Colour
(V Reid, C. Glover, W. Calhoun, M. Skillings)

Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of Personality!
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
I'm the Cult of Personality!
Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I'm the Cult of Personality!
Cult of Personality!
Cult of Personality!

Neon lights, A Nobel Prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set me free

I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your T.V.
I'm the Cult of Personality
I exploit you still you love me!

I tell you one and one makes three
I'm the Cult of Personality!
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
I'm the Cult of Personality!
Cult of Personality!
Cult of Personality!

Neon lights a Nobel Prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your God's name
I'm every person you need to be --
I'm the Cult of Personality!; February 4, 2009 at 9:26 AM

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What A Christian Monist Believes

A Christian Monist is simply a nudging of the mainstream Evangelicalism back towards it Biblical-philosophical roots, which we think is Monistic rather than Dualistic.

This may sound complicated but it is not. Scripture says that God created man, woman, the creatures and the cosmos . . . then said it was good. Yes the Fall did happen, tainting this world (and ourselves) but it didn't decimate the cosmos, rendering it as totally worthless or even evil.

The old Dualist (such as the Gnostics, which influenced the early church) believed that this physical world is evil. They also believed that Satan is the Lord of the darkness, juxtaposed, to God the Lord of the world of light (and the forces were almost equal). C.S. Lewis disagreed with this view, stating that evil was a lowly parasite in the shadows of God’s wonderfully created world.

The practical implications of this change in perspective is immense and we believe accounts for almost all that ails modern, American Evangelicalism. These implications are too many to discuss here, but to mention a few examples.

American Evangelicalism, which had been greatly influenced by forms of Dualism, from Zoroaster to Plato and others, sees things in black vs. white. The spiritual (invisible) is superior to the seen (the physical cosmos). So to an Evangelical, everything is divided between the spiritual vs. worldly and is almost along altitudinal lines. The earth, our physical bodies, art (especially art by non-Christians), emotions, our brains (eg. psychology) . . . all are inferior to the unseen spiritual.

Therefore Evangelicals believe that events must be understood by their unseen forces or they have no value. In other words, Aunt Martha’s cancer wasn’t caused by a cell mutating but by Satan’s attack. Her cancer wasn’t cured by the smart doctors who developed chemotherapy but only by a “super-natural” hand of God.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Evangelicalism has become very dishonest in places and the younger people (both within and without the church) often see it as a farce. I feel very passionate about this because 85% of children, reared within the Evangelical church, leave it before they are 25. Evangelicalism is on the wrong path. They see the great evil as humanism or evolution. The real great evil (and many young people have told me this) is the phoniness withing the church.

The Christian Monist

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Ted's Big Adventure

2 comments:

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