Don’t forget to check out the five-part series “Where is Jesus?” at Jesus Shaped Spirituality.

Actually, not much time to “riff” on these outstanding links (I’m off on a two day mission for our ministry,) but I want to get these good guys some of that massive IM audience love.

C. Michael Patton does that post-evangelical thing under the label of “Minimizing” Christianity to the Glory of God. Those of you who read Michael regularly at Parchment and Pen know that he has a gift for the chart and the multiple choice answer, and I appreciate that ability, even though at times it may slice things a bit simpler than they are in reality.

(BTW- if you appreciate Michael’s ability to organize material and make it interesting, then you need to check out the materials in The Theology Program, Michael’s “lay seminary” that I’ve recommended many times before.)Continue reading “Riffs: “Centralizing” with C. Michael Patton and “8 Connections” with Joe Thorn”

Christian and Roman Catholic convert Heather King got a major write-up at Amy Welborn’s blog. Amy says Heather’s memoir Redeemed is a must read, so I’d say that settles it.

But in the comments of that post I found this quote from an interview with Heather King. That sound you are about to hear is the current crop of cross-avoiding, Osteen-esque evangelicals clearing their throats and slinking down in their seats like the sniveling Gospel-avoiders they are.

Tod asks: And I’m interested to know why the Catholic faith was your path in particular? Why not, for example, a Protestant sect, or Buddhism, or even Islam? What was it about Catholicism that called out to you particularly?

Heather: I can say that when I began my quest I didn’t shop around for a church where I felt “comfortable” or where the people necessarily looked or dressed like me, or where I was going to hear things that were safe or familiar or politically correct. I was seeking the truth. I was looking for a church that would tell me the truth. I was concerned about the state of my soul, which I believed to be a matter of life and death. Catholicism was the only church that addressed that, as a matter of life and death: addressed it directly, continually, truthfully, without stinting or flinching. The cross in a Catholic church has a body on it. Right up front, right above the altar, is the message that subconsciously haunts us: someday, we’re going to die. Right up front, loud and clear, is the human condition: suffering, torment, conflict. As I say in Redeemed, the first time I went to Mass and really “saw” that body on the crucifix, I realized Christ isn’t saying that we need to suffer more; he’s acknowledging the suffering we’re already in. And I suppose on some level in that moment I “got” as much as I ever will, or as it’s possible to “get”—which is that God loves us so much he incarnated himself as man, he came down and pitched his tent among us to teach us how to come awake, to accompany us on the journey, to show what it looks like and what happens to you when you live in total integrity. Eventually, one way or another, they’ll kill you—which is why hardly anyone ever dares to live in total integrity.

Now go and read the entire interview, because it’s a monstrous piece of whup-up on whiney, milque-toast Christianity of every variety and as fine a Christian AND Catholic apologetic as I’ve ever read.Continue reading “Riffs: 08:03:08: Heather King’s Catholicism”