Quick round up

I’ve had a few things put away that I wanted to blog about. I don’t think I’ll ever get to them all, so here are a few you can check out in your own good time.

Ben Myers thinks that churches should get out of the marriage business. Briefly put, he says that marriage (as a legal institution) is a state-sanctioned thing, and the church has no business conducting legal ceremonies on behalf of the state. We can’t hope to critique the modern idea of romantic love and marriage while we are so central to the whole thing. Therefore, he says, we should stop taking part in the whole thing and rethink what marriage is really all about.

The Naked Pastor has ten pieces of advice to take or leave. Indeed, take them or leave them. They’re a great deconstruction of the contemporary church. My favourite?

Don’t go anywhere. No goal. No destiny. No vision. Keep it real and keep it present. You either serve the vision or you serve the people.

Do I agree? I don’t know, either. I will be thinking about it for a while, though.

The ABC is reporting that the biggest factor in determining whether or not critically patients would survive after being released from hospital is poverty. That’s right. It’s a better indicator than age. There’s something seriously wrong here.

James F. McGrath has a good laugh at this video from “Christians for worshipping and praising the God of the Bible, or else.” I know people who think God really is like this. Sheesh.

Well, that’s all for now. If you have any comments, you know what to do!