The Grace PagesA rest-stop for fellow pilgrimsMy story (Part III): Deeper into charismania, and then... Bible College- July 21, 2004 I was genuinely surprised by the message of the prosperity preachers when I heard for the first time that God wanted us to be rich. Europe&146;s first ever Christian TV channel had recently started broadcasting, and I was ripe for its teachings. A lady from church kindly kept my mother and I up-to-date with videotaped recordings of the daily programming. The exciting preaching I was hearing was like nothing I had been exposed to before: Kenneth Copeland and Fred Price would encourage believers.http://blogs.salon.com/0003622/2004/07/21.html#a107 My story (Part II): The Toronto Blessing- July 21, 2004 1994 was a crucial year for charismatics and evangelicals worldwide. It was the year that the strange phenomenon known as the Toronto Blessing first began to appear on the scene. At the close of one of our morning services sometime in spring of that year, our pastor brought to our attention a newspaper article from the previous week. It concerned a church in Loughborough, England, where at the conclusion of a Sunday meeting an unprecedented move of the supernatural had occurred, comparable to..http://blogs.salon.com/0003622/2004/07/21.html#a106 My story (Part I): Into the charismatic movement- July 21, 2004 This is the story of my journey into -- and back out of -- the charismatic movement. It will appear in several parts, mainly to make it more easily digestible for you, the reader. The bulk of it was written about eighteen months ago. When I began writing, I don't think I was entirely aware just how far I was going to journey away not just from the charismatic movement, but from conservatism and evangelicalism as a whole: There is much more to tell. This inadequate and incomplete account,...http://blogs.salon.com/0003622/2004/07/21.html#a105 To hell and back (and back to hell again)- July 20, 2004 We've been around the block with this one a couple times already, and I'm still not done. Camassia has been sharing her thoughts on hell, too. She writes: ... if my creator cares about morals at all, he could hardly have created a being more moral than himself. If human compassion spills unruly once it is released, what must the compassion of God do ... I am having a harder and harder time believing that the way for me to become a good Christian is to lose my supposedly misguided...http://blogs.salon.com/0003622/2004/07/20.html#a104 |