Jesus Was a Liberal


Book Description

For the millions of people who identify as liberal Christians. In McLennan's bold call to reclaim ownership of Christianity, he advocates a sense of religion based not on doctrinal readings of scripture but on the humanity behind Christ's teachings. He addresses such topics as intelligent design, abortion, same sex marriage, war. torture and much, much more. As he says in the Preface, "We liberal Christians know in our hearts that there is much more to life than seems to meet the rational eye of atheists; yet we find it hard to support supernatural claims about religion that fly in the face of scientific evidence."




Do Unto Others


Book Description

Too often, those on the outside see the church as an example of judgment and exclusion—even hate. Is this a fault of nonbelievers, or could it be a failure of Christians to show compassion and empathy for all God’s children—to be the hands and feet of Jesus? When the church focuses exclusively on saving the lost from hell, without demanding a total submission and transformation to selflessness from selfishness, it does a disservice to God’s kingdom on earth. Faith in and a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is not the finish line. It is the start of a lifelong struggle to humble ourselves as Jesus did. If we would make meeting others’ needs our primary desire, the world might sit up and pay closer attention and maybe even be transformed.




Jesus Was a Liberal


Book Description

Sheridan was provoked by the perpetual attempt of the religious right and the ultra-conservative elements in America to label everything "liberal" as if it were an evil that had invested our entire society with the poisonous venom. He feels that Jesus established the basis for precisely what the Democratic Party has espoused for the past seventy-five years.




Jesus Was a Liberal


Book Description

Jesus was a Liberal was provoked by the perpetual attempt of the religious right and the ultra-conservative elements in America to label everything "liberal" was if it were an evil that had infested our entire society with the poisonous venom. The party of Lincoln who deeply believed that "government should do for people what they cannot do for themselves or do so well," has betrayed the words of their founder by vigorously opposing programs vital to our nation's future including Social Security, unemployment compensation, and Medicare. Labeling liberals as communists, "pinkos", socialists, the Republican Party's right-wing and their evangelical Christians co-conspirators has pelted liberals with every kind of vindictive accusation imaginable. The fact is that the Man from Galilee insisted that his followers feed those who are hungry, give water to those who thirst, clothe those who are naked, and visit those in prison, He was establishing the basis for precisely what the Democratic Party has espoused for the past seventy-five years. A quick review of the word "liberal" in the Webster's New Universal Dictionary, one immediately reads these characteristics "maximum individual freedom,""government protection of civil liberties," "characterized by generosity and a willingness to give in large amount." In fact, one must question whether it is possible to be a Christian and a Republican in the same life. This work will answer that question chapter after chapter.




Jesus Was a Liberal


Book Description

In today's heightened political climate, the term liberal evokes a lot of emotion, especially in the Evangelical church. In this book, author Jeni Cook-Stivale explored what it means to be truly liberal, challenging the reader to move past religious traditions and live life with Jesus Christ as our example so that we may give liberally, love liberally and live liberally.




Reclaiming Christianity


Book Description

Does the church use words that have lost their meaning? Are there Christian words and phrases that have lost their power to convict the human spirit and bring transformation to the world? One of the twentieth century's most renowned prophetic thinkers, A.W. Tozer, saw a dangerous trend gaining momentum even before his death--a trend that has become commonplace now in the twenty-first century. In this never-before-published book, Tozer sounds his alarm for the modern church: We must stop parroting words carelessly and instead allow the meaning that these words convey to empower, shape, and direct the work of the church. Yet Reclaiming Christianity is not just a warning; it is a spiritual guidebook for reconnecting to the deepest meaning of Christianity's sacred messages.




The Liberal Soul


Book Description

The Liberal Soul offers something lacking in LDS culture. That is the presentation of a different way for Latter-day Saints to examine the question of how to be faithful disciples of Christ and good citizens. It shows public policy decision-making regarding government role as the manifestation of the "liberal soul" rather than as the libertarianism advocated by past Mormon speakers and writers such as Ezra Taft Benson, Cleon Skousen, or Vern Andersen. It also takes a different approach from the less radical but still traditional economic conservative attitudes of well-known politicians such as Orrin Hatch or Mitt Romney. Davis suggests that a Latter-day Saint can approach economic policy, war, the environment, and social issues with the perspective that society is basically good and not evil, tolerance and forbearance are desirable qualities instead of bad ones, and that government can and does play a positive role as a vehicle of society in improving the lives of citizens. He describes how Latter-day Saints can apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our roles at each of these three levels-individual, group, and society-rather than assuming the societal level violates the principles of the Gospel. The result is that Latter-day Saints can help bring about a Zion society-one where all benefit, the most vulnerable are aided and not ignored, inclusion is the rule and not the exception, and suspicion and fear are replaced by love and acceptance.




Bad Religion


Book Description

Traces the decline of Christianity in America since the 1950s, posing controversial arguments about the role of heresy in the nation's downfall while calling for a revival of traditional Christian practices.




Jesus Means Freedom


Book Description

Here is a book that "tells it like it is" regarding what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in today's world. It is a book that rigorously affirms the freedom of the Christian person, and just as rigorously refutes those who would restrict or negate this freedom in the name of Christian orthodoxy. The author, whose insights were shaped by the agonies of serving as a pastor during the Hitler years in Germany as well as by the discipline of years of careful research in the area of Christian origins, provides here a survey that gets to the heart of the New Testament message. He is ruthlessly honest with himself, with the New Testament, and with the church, as he strives passionately to show that Jesus means freedom - and that this has been so from the beginning. Despite its roots in the experience of the German church in the decades following World War II, Ksemann's work has a broad and enduring relevance. The crisis with which he is concerned is not uniquely that of the German church but affects Christianity throughout the world. It is his conviction that only if the church proclaims boldly the call to freedom that was the Lord's call, and lives in that freedom, can the church remain true to its Lord and of service to humanity.




Reimagining the Kingdom


Book Description

"In this important guide, Jeremy Bouma explains how many who speak of the Kingdom of God do not mean what Jesus meant by it. If you are one who is attracted to the liberal gospel, this guide might just save your soul." —MICHAEL E. WITTMER, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary Recently use of Kingdom language in evangelicalism has markedly increased, and rightly so, as the Kingdom is central to the gospel and teachings of Jesus. Several scholars have noted similarities between this language and Protestant liberalism. Yet they have not significantly explored how liberal theology is impacting evangelical notions of the Kingdom, and consequently the gospel. Reimagining the Kingdom traces the development of this language through four generations of liberals—from Schleiermacher to Ritschl, Rauschenbusch, and Tillich—to explore how their liberal language is affecting evangelical theology, as illustrated by progressive evangelical and Emergent Brian McLaren. By exploring how theological liberals define the human problem, understand that problem’s solution, and interpret the nature of the One who bore that solution, this book reveals an inextricable link between progressive evangelicalism and Protestant liberalism. It is vitally important that evangelicals understand the contours of liberal Kingdom theology to understand how it is affecting how evangelicals are showing and telling the gospel itself.