7 comments:

• posted at 8:40 am on Mon, Jun 18, 2007.

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  Atheist appears to assume one cannot be politically liberal while also being a theologian. I disagree. The principles of liberalism, as I understand them, flow out of the biblical concern for justice, care for the stranger in the land, compassion for the poor and downtrodden. If, by liberalism, you mean an openness to questions, that is consistent with my understanding that I am not God and therefore all thoughts, ideas and conclusions are limited by my finiteness. Therefore none of us will ever be able to fully capture God's essence, being, reality in words.

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• posted at 3:31 am on Mon, Jun 18, 2007.

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  Bishop Mattheis, I am more "religious" than you! You are having cognitive dissonance between your liberal politics and your religious faith. As an atheist, I can clearly see this in your comments. You are a "politically correct" liberal, and THAT is your new religion. Liberals try to pretend they are "objective" by being PC, but they are really hypocrites. Who are you? A liberal pretending to be religious, or a theologian pretending to be liberal?

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• posted at 4:01 am on Thu, Jun 14, 2007.

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  . . . than one of the multitude who is confident that he does. Or worse yet, one who is strives deliberately to be a "centrist" in the name of not alienating anyone. (Note that I say "he" because of the paucity of female leadership in the institutional church. Misogyny, bigotry, homophobia and hate speech in the name of Christ are among the major reasons I am no longer affiliated with any organized religion.) (cont.)

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• posted at 9:20 am on Tue, Jun 12, 2007.

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  i read the whole thing. bishop spong's name was ringing in my ears even before i read mattheis' epitath. then mattheis aligned himself with spong, sealing his own fate as an heretic of the faith. in reading what his daughter wrote there as well, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. these two would be better off leading motivational seminars, rather than trying to represent God. both are extremely inaccurate at representing the real Jesus Christ. it's secular humanism, and thats 180 degree's opposite of the totality of Christ.

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• posted at 8:52 am on Tue, Jun 12, 2007.

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  NO ONE past, present, or future, will be able to stand before God on judgement day and assert to God that what they "felt" or "believed" was right. we will all be judged by the exact same standards, no matter what time in history we were born. those standards ....what did you do about God according to what God had said about himself. it's both a sad and laughable matter, to think that a man can believe anything they want about God, and still be righteous before him on that day. God determines what man believes.

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• posted at 7:29 am on Sun, Jun 10, 2007.

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  As one can see by this article, it is not necessary to have any core values to be a lutheran minister nor a synod bishop. It is a major reason most "mainstream" denominations are declining, the ELCA among them.

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• posted at 7:03 am on Sun, Jun 10, 2007.

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  While I do believe we are pursuing a living understanding, a "Way of Life," the community of which AmyJo Mattheis is the lead pastor is called "Way of Christ."

  WOCC Pastor for Communication/Technology

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