What Shapes Your Faith?

A story from USA Today caught my eye. Sunday's article in the Faith & Reason section by Cathy Lynn Grossman reports on the book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by political scientists Robert Putnam of Harvard and David Campbell of Notre Dame. Their research concludes that American evangelicals believe that most good people will make it Heaven regardless of what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to the Father.

Grossman says:

They found that on the ultimate religious tolerance questions -- who is saved -- Americans overwhelmingly believe "a good person who is of another religion (than your own) can go to heaven. The group that scored lowest, evangelicals, were still greatly in favor of a wide and generous grace with 83% saying yes to this.

But did they really mean non-Christians, or was this Methodists saying, sure, Lutherans are saved, too? They asked again,adding "even if they are not Christian" and 54% of evangelical protestants on up to 98% of Mormons agreed.

This is a particularly disturbing opinion, if true. One of the things a pastor must continually repeat is the simple premise of the Gospel: Humans are alienated from God by sin. The exclusive cure for sin is the payment made by Christ, His shedding His blood on the cross. The only hope any person has of eternal life is repenting of their sin and coming to Christ by faith alone.


It is particularly frustrating that Christians don't get the fact that God will not "grade on the curve" for their loved one or friend. Just because we love them and see lovable qualities in them doesn't mean the Father will give them a mulligan on the Gospel at the judgment. They will be judged based on their righteousness, or on the imputed righteousness of Christ. If they don't have Christ, they will not gain eternal life. That is why it is critical for every Christian to share the Gospel with those he loves. No Gospel, no Heaven.


Our church's theme is "First Baptist Church Loves Robinson!". The way this church or any individual Christian can best show love is by showing people the way to Christ. Anything less is simply kind-hearted wishful thinking.

There's A Conservative Christian Running For President

There's a real conservative who is making noises about running for President in 2012.  He's visiting Iowa and staying active in the media.  This past week, he was one of the keynote speakers at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit.  His name is Mike Pence.  He's a leader in the House and is a member from Indiana.  He states that he's "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican...in that order."  He deserves a good look by everyone interested in conservatism and by every politically active Christian.

The time to fight for our values is in the primaries.  Remember Rush's rule: vote for the most conservative Republican in the primaries.  We have to pay attention early this cycle and get behind and work for our preferred candidate.  The cycle for 2012 begins on November 3rd this year.

Listen to his speech at the Value Voters Summit:

Back In Action and Two Quick Hits

After neglecting the blog for too many months, I'm back in action. I must admit that my inclination to update and inform didn't go away. But I was seduced by Twitter and Facebook, using those platforms for lots of quick hits. After some time, reflection, and encouragement, I'm going to try to merge all three venues.

Two articles from my morning reading deserve mention. The first is from Dan Burrell. He posted a new article titled Paying The Price When You Take a Stand. Using the recent case of the family who objected to overly-sexual cheers on their six year old's cheer squad, he makes the following observation:

But let’s make something clear — taking a stand will often require you to pay a price and that’s a good thing. Dead leaves and dead fish go with the flow. Taking a stand causes ripples and waves. Turn on a light and watch the cockroaches run for the shadows. Put some salt on ice and watch things start changing. Taking a stand on matters of propriety, morality, philosophy, ethics, values and conduct is going to exact some sort of price at the hands of those whose values are different than yours.

We should expect nothing less.

The entire article is worthy of reading and considering. He makes powerful points of living biblically holy lives without being legalistic prudes.

The other article is on a blog new to me called Sola Sisters. It's a revealing and discerning article on Glenn Beck.

And okay, sure, I knew you were a Mormon. But maybe, I said to myself, he's really a Christian. Maybe he's one of those "cultural Mormons," a Mormon in name only, who doesn't even know about all that kooky Mormon theology. After all, he talks about God and Jesus and salvation and atonement.... Looking back, I'm so ashamed of myself: I should have known better! After all, a large part of what I do is write about cults, and how they use the same terminology that Christians do, only with redefined meanings. Oh, how I wanted to believe.

The rest of the article details the deviant and false gospel beliefs of Mormonism.