Christian Discipleship, Cultural Warfare, Teen Suicide, and Genocide

The debate about being a thinking Christian is happening amidst tech-savvy scientists and engineers online.

Oddly, this stream dates from Steve Jobs' now famous commencement speech at Stanford, now being taken up as a serious point of theological reflection on what the "good life" consists of.

"Finally, the ultimate consequences of winning or losing the
culture wars suggest to me that the wars may not be worth fighting.
If we (Christians) win by having conservative judges appointed who
allow more expression of religion in schools and other public
places and reverse Roe v. Wade and by passing laws or a
constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, we will still not
have changed the minds of the people who oppose these views. Worse,
we will be much less likely to be able to effectively present the
gospel to them, because they will feel we are already forcing our
morality on them."

As in the nineteenth century, business leaders are thinking hard about their salvation. They're among the fittest and cleverest, and despite their materialism, entrepreneuers often have the sense to step back and wonder if they made the right choices.

I'm glad to see them engage the debate about Progressive Christianity. They have much to contribute, as this quote especially shows: indeed, the stakes of letting fundamentalists and hate-mongers steal the title "Christian" are huge. Indeed, fundamentalists and hate-mongers have scared away thousands of young, smart people, alienated youth, and well-meaning rebels already.

Whether we let the hate-mongers continue to speak for the church at large is a question of whether or not we allow future generations of smart, well-meaning youth will be able to share their relationship with God with each other in a meaningful way.

Link: Believe it or not, BushCo is FINALLY ready to let that slogan go. And they're replacing it with: (drumroll) The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.