Is the Megachurch the New Liberalism?

Black Christian new writes:

The emergence of the megachurch as a model of metropolitan ministry is one of the defining marks of evangelical Christianity in the United States. Megachurches -- huge congregations that attract thousands of worshipers -- arrived on the scene in the 1970s and quickly became engines of ministry development and energy.

Over the last 40 years, the megachurch has made its presence known, often dominating the Christian landscape within the nation's metropolitan regions. The megachurch came into dominance at the same time that massive shopping malls became the landmarks of suburban consumer life. Sociologists can easily trace the rise of megachurches within the context of America's suburban explosion and the development of the technologies and transportation systems that made both the mall and the megachurch possible.

 

 Continue reading: Is the Megachurch the New Liberalism?

Related articles

• A Landmark Case Study of a Megachurch (msahlin.typepad.com)
  The patterns of a megachurch look much like those of its niche in the world; fragmented nodes of participation connected by the automobile and facilities much like shopping malls. The home and family have become the center of life and other institutions (work, community, politics and culture) are marginalized around the private center of each nuclear family's life.
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  Evangelical megachurches have become expert at providing many different modes of worship, each appealing to a specific subculture. They are dispersed, multi-modal networks that only appear to be mass organizations. They best fit the endless suburban-like social context of California which is replicated to some extent around all major metropolitan areas in North America.
• Is the Megachurch the New Liberalism? (standupforthetruth.com)
  On the international scene, huge congregations can be found in many African nations and in nations such as Brazil, South Korea, and Australia. In London, where the megachurch can trace its roots back in the 19th century to massive urban congregations such as Charles Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle, a few modern megachurches can be found. For the most part, however, the suburban evangelical megachurch is an American phenomenon.
  

  Theologically, most megachurches are conservative in orientation, at least in a general sense. In America, a large number of megachurches are associated with the charismatic movement and denominations such as the Assemblies of God. Many are independent, though often loosely associated with other churches. The largest number of megachurches within one denomination is found within the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination.
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  A shot now reverberating around the evangelical world was fired by Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley in recent days. Preaching at North Point Community Church, in a sermon series known as “Christian,” Stanley preached a message titled “When Gracie Met Truthy” on April 15, 2012. With reference to John 1:14, Stanley described the challenge of affirming grace and truth in full measure. He spoke of grace and truth as a tension, warning that “if you resolve it, you give up something important.”

• The Big Business of the MegaChurch (jenx67.com)
  
• Has the Megachurch Idea Peaked? (msahlin.typepad.com)
  Two items in the news this weekend tell me that the megachurch concept has peaked in American culture. From here on out it will decline, but probably never disappear.
  First, the Crystal Cathedral, arguably the original megachurch, has passed to the ownership of the Roman Catholic diocese in Orange County (California) and has been renamed as a Catholic cathedral. The megachurch started by Robert Schuller is at an end after about a half century.
  Second, Pastor Creflo Dollar was arrested on Friday night for beating his 15-year-old daughter. He has been a primary example of the "prosperity gospel" and African American megachurches. He will inevitably go downhill from this event despite his denial and defiance on the events in question.
  This is probably as clear a marker as we will have on this trend in our culture. The idea of the megachurch will become less attractive and slowly enter into decline. But, it is unlikely to ever disappear alltogther. There will always be a strand of Christianity anchored in the culture of the affluent, suburban consumer even once the Baby Boom has passed from the world.
  
• God as a drug: The rise of American megachurches (esciencenews.com)
  American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington. "Membership in megachurches is one of the leading ways American Christians worship these days, so, therefore, these churches should be understood," said James Wellman, associate professor of American religion at the University of Washington. "Our study shows that -- contrary to public opinion that tends to pass off the megachurch movement as consumerist religion -- megachurches are doing a pretty effective job for their members. In fact, megachurch members speak eloquently of their spiritual growth."
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  The researchers also found that the large size of megachurch congregations is a benefit rather than a drawback, as it results in resources for state-of-the-art technology -- amplifying the emotional intensity of services -- and the ability to hire more qualified church leadership.
• What in the world??? (nomads2.wordpress.com)
  The emergence of the megachurch was noted by sociologists and church researchers attempting to understand the massive shifts that were taking place in the last decades of the 20th century. Researchers such as Dean M. Kelley of the National Council of Churches traced the decline of the liberal denominations that once constituted the old Protestant “mainline.” This decline was contrasted with remarkable growth among more conservative denominations and churches — a pattern traced in Kelley’s 1973 landmark book, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing. Kelley argued that conservative churches were growing precisely because of their strict doctrine and moral teachings. The early megachurches were the leading edge of the growth among conservative churches, especially in metropolitan and suburban settings.
  The megachurches were not without their critics. Theologian David Wells leveled a massive critique of the doctrinal minimalism, methodological pragmatism, and managerial culture of many megachurches. Os Guiness accused the megachurch movement of “flirting with modernity” to a degree that put the Christian identity of the massive congregations at risk.
  
• Has the Megachurch Lost Its Luster? (juicyecumenism.com)
  Churches with multi-site campuses, parking garages, jumbo-trons, award-winning praise bands, laser shows, tremendous charities, political endorsements, and even in-house coffee shops sprang up across the nation. Thousands of people—unchurched, disenchanted, or pushed out of liberalizing Mainline congregations (or stringent fundamentalist ones)—flocked to these new watering holes. The droves started having offspring as smaller congregations dwindled away. A new way of “doing church” was in town, and it seemed to be primed for being the ideal model for pastors to emulate if they wanted their congregations to survive the coming millennium. However, critics of this ecclesiology came to the forefront. They complained of shallow theology, entertainment over discipleship, emotionalism, cults of ego, lack of accountability, giganticism (in terms of architecture, size, and theology), consumerism, the prosperity gospel, lack of reverence, therapeutic spirituality, and a host of other spiritual maladies. Most devastatingly, many of the megachurch’s harshest critics came from its own children. In addition, the majority of Americans that remained in smaller congregations also tended to sympathize with these critiques. Indeed, it is almost a truism now to hear a diatribe about the apparent evils of megachurch-style religion.
  
• Where Are the People? (theamericanscholar.org)
  The Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California, is one of America’s largest and most celebrated ecclesiastical buildings. At 60,000 square feet and designed by architect Philip Johnson, it was until recently the sanctuary of Robert H. Schuller, once one of the country’s most prominent and influential Christian ministers. In September 1980, when he dedicated the cathedral at an opening ceremony (“To the glory of man for the greater glory of God”), Schuller was at the height of his influence, preaching to a congregation of thousands in Orange County and reaching millions more worldwide via the Hour of Power, a weekly televised ministry program. Among the show’s annual highlights were “The Glory of Easter” and its companion production, “The Glory of Christmas,” multimillion-dollar dramatic extravaganzas staged inside the cathedral with a cast of professional actors, Hollywood-grade costumes, and live animals. The setting for the spectacles was a striking, soaring, light-filled structure justly praised by architecture critics. But it was not a cathedral. It was never consecrated by a religious denomination. The building is not even made of crystal, but rather 10,000 rectangular panes of glass. Like the much beloved, much pilloried Disneyland three miles to the northwest, the Crystal Cathedral is a monument to Americans’ inveterate ability to transform dominant cultural impulses—in this case, Christianity itself—into moneymaking enterprises that conquer the world.
• Getting High on God (seattleweekly.com)
  
  Karl Marx famously said that religion is the opiate of the masses, and now a new study from sociologists at the University of Washington suggests that attending a Protestant megachurch actually does produce a high much like being on drugs.
  
  The study, titled " 'God Is Like a Drug . . . ': Explaining Interaction Ritual Chains in American Megachurches," is the work of UW professor James Wellman and grad students Katie E. Corcoran and Kate Stockly-Meyerdirk. The trio pored over 470 interviews with attendees of 12 megachurches from across the United States.

Phoenicians sacrificed infants

A new paper co-authored by Peter van Dommelen, the Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and professor of anthropology, attempts to put to rest a long-standing mystery about infant bones found in Phoenician cemeteries in modern Tunisia and Italy. Experts have long been conflicted over whether the bones, found packed in urns and buried under tombstones, were the result of ritualistic sacrifices or simply carefully buried remains of children who died before or soon after birth. Van Dommelen's research, conducted with colleagues from several European institutions, concludes that the Phoenicians did kill their own infant children, burying them with sacrificed animals and ritual inscriptions in special cemeteries to give thanks for special favors from the gods. Published in the journal Antiquity, the researchers used the manner in which the remains were buried and the inscriptions on the tombstones as evidence that pointed toward the sacrifice rather than natural death. Additionally, although hundreds of remains were found, there were far too few to account for all of the stillbirths and infant deaths in that area, according to the study.

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• Cemetery or Sacrifice in Carthage... Again (bonesdontlie.wordpress.com)
  About a year and a half ago, I posted an article about the Tophet of Carthage. The cemetery was used for over 600 years, between 730 BCE and 146 BCE, and there are no adult graves found at the site, only those of infants, lambs, and goat kids. The grave markers all have dedications to either Baal or Tanit, the patron gods of Carthage. The designation of the word tophet to the site is in reference to the Hebrew word topheth, which means “place of burning”.
• Carthaginians sacrificed own children, archaeologists say (sott.net)
  Argument has raged on the subject since cemeteries known as tophets - after the biblical account of a place of sacrifice - were excavated in the early 20th century on the outskirts of Carthage in modern Tunisia, and then at other Carthaginian sites in Sicily and Sardinia. The graves held tiny cremated bones carefully packed into urns, buried under tombstones giving thanks to the gods. One has a carving which has been interpreted as a priest carrying the body of a small child. Some archaeologists and historians saw the finds as proving ancient accounts of child sacrifice; others insisted they showed tender respect for cherished children who died before or soon after birth.
• Ancient Greek stories of ritual child sacrifice are true, study claims (forum.prisonplanet.com)
  After decades of historians denying that the Carthaginians sacrificed their children as described in Greek accounts, a new study claims to have found ‘overwhelming’ evidence that the ancient civilisation really did carry out bloodthirsty practice.
  Carthaginian parents ritually sacrificed young children as an offering to the gods and laid them to rest in special infant burial grounds, according to a team of international researchers.
  
  The city-state of ancient Carthage was a Phoenician colony located in what is now Tunisia. It operated from around 800BC until 146BC, when it was destroyed by the Romans.
  Babies of just a few weeks old were sacrificed by the Carthaginians at locations known as tophets.
  Dedications from the children's parents to the gods are inscribed on slabs of stone above their cremated remains, ending with the explanation that the god or gods concerned had 'heard my voice and blessed me'.
  
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2544728/Ancient-Greek-stories-ritual-child-sacrifice-Carthage-TRUE-study-claims.html
• Phoenician Gods and Goddesses (lmoffner.wordpress.com)
  The phoenicians were a vile people. They sacrificed their offspring on a wim. There are gravesites filled with the bodies of young children in pottery jars.
• It's not just ancient Roman propaganda: Carthaginians really did sacrifice children (rawstory.com)
  “This is something dismissed as black propaganda because in modern times people just didn’t want to believe it,” said Josephine Quinn, a lecturer in ancient history at Oxford, who is behind the study, with international colleagues, of one of the most bitterly debated questions in classical archaeology.
  “But when you pull together all the evidence – archaeological, epigraphic and literary – it is overwhelming and, we believe, conclusive: they did kill their children, and on the evidence of the inscriptions, not just as an offering for future favours but fulfilling a promise that had already been made.
  
• Despite naysayers, archaeologists assert thesis about child sacrifice in ancient #Carthage http://t.co/aIeF98LyIA (theguardian.com)
  "The inscriptions are unequivocal: time and again we find the explanation that the gods 'heard my voice and blessed me'. It cannot be that so many children conveniently happened to die at just the right time to become an offering – and in any case a poorly or dead child would make a pretty feeble offering if you're already worried about the gods rejecting it."
  "Then there is the fact that the animals from the sites, which were beyond question sacrificial offerings, are buried in exactly the same way, sometimes in the same urns with the bones of the children."
  Although hundreds of remains were found, there were far too few to represent all the stillbirth and infant deaths of Carthage. According to Quinn, there were perhaps 25 such burials a year, for a city of perhaps 500,000 people.
  
• Homerica 4 - the Mediterranean Theory (la) (spacezilotes.wordpress.com)
  The Anasazi built acropoles and fortresses very much alike to those of Mycinae, constructed roads, amphitheaters and irrigational works. They conducted solar observations and constructed clay pots and pottery similar to those of the Greek geometric period. The symbols and the designs of Anasazi which are carved on stones, their ceramic designs and especially their myths which were salvaged by Hopi, offer light to things which for the ‘specialists’ remain ‘unsolved mysteries’. The French writer Pierre Honorre notes that ‘the Maya writing is entirely identical with the Minoan Linear A’. A jar originating from Crete that was discovered in Bimini creates an unexpected so called ‘riddle’. Copper made double sided axes from Crete were found in Washighton and Ohio of the U.S.A.(What can all these mean? ).
• Set in Stone (warnerwriting.wordpress.com)
  Whether or not you plan to have an epitaph, “Plan Your Epitaph Day” is a reminder to make your own final plans now instead of leaving them for others to handle later.
• When cemeteries become private property (mysecuritysign.com)
  Property rights are, essentially, the right to exclude. But practice, and sometimes law, particularly in Southern states where century-old family cemeteries are a part of the fabric of the area’s cultural heritage, have allowed continued access to cemeteries despite standard private property laws.

Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday

The 2010 study by the Barna Group which explored Americans’ definition of the Easter holiday. (See: Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection)

They asked a nationwide, representative sample of American adults how they would describe what Easter means to them, personally.

Icon of the Resurrection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Interestingly, those who articulate a resurrection-related concept of Easter are no more likely than other religiously oriented Americans to indicate that they will invite friends to worship with them on Easter.

The types of Americans who were most likely to express some type of theistic religious connection with Easter were evangelicals (93%), attenders of large churches (86% among those whose congregation has 500-plus adult attenders), born again Christians (81%), and weekly churchgoers (77%).
Republicans (77%) and Democrats (71%) were more likely than were independents (59%) and non-registered citizens (51%) to say Easter has religious meaning for them.

In terms of age, members of the Boomer generation (73%, ages 45 to 63) were among the most likely to describe Easter as a religious holiday for them, compared with two-thirds of Elders (66% of those ages 64-plus) and Busters (66%, ages 26 to 44). The youngest adult generation, the Mosaics (ages 18 to 25), were the least likely age segment to say Easter is a religious holiday (58%), reflecting the increasingly secular mindset of young adults.

Other population segments describing Easter with a non-religious bent were faith groups other than Christianity (just 31% said Easter’s meaning is religious), atheists and agnostics (36%), and unchurched adults (46%).

Those who identify Easter explicitly as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus were most likely to be evangelicals (73%), large church attenders (60%), born again Christians (55%), active churchgoers (54%), upscale adults (54%), and Protestants (51%).

Showing a perceptual gap between political conservatives and liberals, those on the political “right” were nearly twice as likely as those on the political “left” to say that Easter is a celebration of the resurrection (53% versus 29%, respectively).

In terms of the audience that most Christian churches attempt to attract on Easter weekend – non-churchgoing adults – the research shows that while 46% of unchurched adults view the meaning of Easter to be religious, while just 25% connect the holiday to Jesus’ return to life.

As for denominational affiliation, most Catholics said they celebrate Easter as a religious holiday (65%).Still, just one-third of Catholics listed the resurrection as the meaning of the holiday (37%). In comparison, Protestants were more likely than Catholics both to view Easter as a religious holiday and to connect the occasion to Jesus’ awakening from death (78% and 51%, respectively).






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Please, also find to read:

Welcome to Easter 2014

Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ

Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection

High Holidays not only for Israel 

14-15 Nisan and Easter 

Ishtar the fertility goddess or Altered to fit a Trinity 

Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs

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• The History and Origins of Easter (personalcreations.com)
  For Christians, Easter is associated with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ approximately 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Lent, a 40-day period that leads up to Easter Sunday, is a time of reflection that represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ had spent alone in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. At this time, Christians believe that he had survived many temptations by the devil. The day before Lent starts, known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, is a final celebration of fun and food before the fasting begins. The week before Easter is known at the Holy Week. It includes several important days, including Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the last supper, Good Friday, which honors the crucifixion day, and Holy Saturday, which is associated with the transition time between the crucifixion and resurrection.
• Easter (beeblu2013.wordpress.com)
  Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (although the astronomical equinox occurs on 20 March in most years), and the “Full Moon” is not necessarily on the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies from 22 March to 25 April inclusive. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian calendar, whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar, and in which therefore the celebration of Easter varies between 4 April and 8 May.
• 2014 Easter Holiday in Canada (besttravelsite.wordpress.com)
  Like all religious celebrations, Easter has a complex history and there is debate about its origins. According to the Venerable Bede (672-735 CE), a Christian scholar, the word “Easter” came from the Old English eastre, which was probably from the Germanic Eostre, the Great Mother goddess of the Saxon people, who was associated with spring and new life.
  The symbols we associate with modern best Easter holiday in canada have more to do with spring than religion and hearken back to the traditions of ancient peoples. Eggs, chicks, flowers, and rabbits are all related to spring, and are associated with the renewal of life after the winter.
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  The practice of eating spiced buns at the time of the spring festival may have arisen from ancient Greek customs, but the English practice of having them on Good Friday appears to have been institutionalized during Tudor times when a bylaw was introduced in London forbidding their sale except on Good Friday or Christmas, or at burials.
  
• Welcome to Easter 2014 (colleenknapp92.wordpress.com)
  I’m not of religious views, so when I was a child Easter was about a big rabbit who invaded your home and left candy everywhere. Then the family would gather around for large meals (usually brunch) or a fancy dinner and just enjoy what the Easter Bunny brought us. Talk, and have family time. But I’ve noticed something that disturbs me greatly, and that is the materialization of goods at Easter. Just like Christmas, Easter is becoming about how much money you can spend on your children or grand children. I saw a post on Facebook where a woman said she had spent $200 on her child already (sounds like she’s going to be spending more) I agree, children have needs; new clothes for spring, maybe a new bike, new shoes, but there should be a reasonable amount or even an average that people spend on their children for Easter. Holiday’s are a great time to disguise NEEDS as gifts, but when do we draw the line? These uncertain economic times, with gas prices soaring, heating and water bills increasing, people swimming in debt (every year getting worse and worse) wouldn’t people be trying to SAVE their money?
  
• The History of the Chocolate Bunny... and other Easter Traditions (rsvpkentuckyohioindiana.wordpress.com)
  When spring arrives there is a lot to look forward to like warmer weather, brighter colors, beautiful flowers, and of course Easter!! One of the most celebrated holidays, Easter is among a favorite of many. It is observed here in the states and across the world.
  An Article in Women’s Day Magazine called ‘Easter Traditions from Around the World’, shares that
  
  “In some parts of Western Finland, people burn bonfires on Easter Sunday, a Nordic tradition stemming from the belief that the flames ward off witches who fly around on brooms between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In Rome, Mass is celebrated on the evening of Holy Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, thousands of visitors congregate in St. Peter’s Square to await the Pope’s blessing from the church’s balcony, known as “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and to the World).”
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  Being of German heritage I was fascinated to find out that the Easter bunny originated among German Lutherans. It was used to judge the behavior of children during the Eastertide season much like Santa Claus at Christmas. If the children were good throughout the year the Easter bunny brings candy and colored eggs.
• Easter Greetings (mangosalute.com)
  every family and church has their own traditions, but for the most part there is a commonality among festivities and greetings with one another.  For one, church is the fundamental element required for rejoicing this day.  Church services are held during Holy Week, and many Christians attend church on Palm Sunday (the first day of Holy Week), Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.  It really depends on the specific religion and their traditions, as Catholics may attend Mass at different times and days than, let’s say, someone who is Methodist.  Either way, attending church services is an integral part of the Easter holiday.
• Happy Easter - Joyeuses Pâques! (twentyfourseveninfrance.com)
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• Garden Party (tuesdaytheory.wordpress.com)
  
  In my country we have long traditions when  it comes to Easter celebrations and we have the longest Easter holiday in the world:)
  It is probably why most our Easter activities have to do with the long holiday more than the actual Easter meaning. The most common thing to do during Easter is to go stay at your cabin (yes most Norwegians have a cabin). It should be spent in the mountains somewhere, as close to the sun as possible, since the sun has been away for a few months in parts of the country.
  Easter used to be a very quiet holiday due to all the red days on the calendar and everything was closed everywhere. Today it’s allowed for some stores to stay open so it’s now possible to spend your Easter holiday in the city if you like. If so the main activity will be going to the movies:)
• New Survey Shows 7 Out of 10 Americans Celebrate Easter as a Religious Holiday (faithinspires.wordpress.com)
  Amid headlines of adults ruining a children’s annual Easter egg hunt in Colorado Springs, Colo., American Bible Society is releasing survey findings that paint a much brighter picture of the holiday. A recent survey by American Bible Society and Barna Group reveals 69 percent of U.S. adults celebrate Easter as a religious holiday and not just an occasion for egg hunts, stuffed bunnies and candy.
• His Destiny Was Known (vineandbranchworldministries.com)
  Really it has far more meaning than celebration of new attire and the Easter egg hunt. It is about honoring a savior who came to redeem mankind through freedom from sin, and the most important thing to remember is that he gave his life for all. Take a moment to reflect on his final days and hours before he said, “It is finished.”
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  Allow this Easter Holiday to become a time you seriously consider getting to know more about the one who came and died so that you can know how wonderful it is to be free, free indeed.
  

Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection

Tomorrow many Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the day to remember the Resurrection of some one they consider to be also God, though God according to the Holy Scriptures is a  Spirit Who can not die.

The Cross and Resurrection (Photo credit: Luz Adriana Villa A.)

As Easter approaches, many Christians struggle with how to understand the Resurrection. How literally must one take the Gospel story of Jesus’ triumph to be called a Christian? Can one understand the Resurrection as a metaphor — perhaps not even believe it happened at all — and still claim to be a Christian? And what do they want ot understand under being a Christian, because for many it does not exactly mean to be a "follower of Christ" but means more to be a follower of a trinitarian doctrine.

For the Americans who answered to the survey only 2 percent identified it as the most important holiday of their faith. For Christ Jesus 14 Nisan and 15 Nisan were two very important days, but most Christians do not even know what does days are and for what reason Jesus came together where.

Jesus Resurrection 1778 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having a society becoming more religiously diverse, the U.S.A. nation’s population has had to grapple with how to define its holidays and celebrations at the 2010 Barna poll which showed that only 42 percent of Americans said the meaning of Easter was Jesus’ resurrection. The results indicated that most Americans consider Easter to be a religious holiday, but fewer identify the resurrection of Jesus as the underlying meaning. The study also explored the degree to which Americans are likely to invite an unchurched friend or family member to attend worship service on Easter weekend.

“More people have problems with Easter because it requires believing that Jesus rose from the dead,” 

said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of the new book, “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.”

“But believing in the Resurrection is essential. It shows that nothing is impossible with God. In fact, Easter without the Resurrection is utterly meaningless. And the Christian faith without Easter is no faith at all.”

It is strange to hear it from a a reverend who takes Jesus to be God, but than should know that death can not have any grip on God. Jesus who had his “last supper” before the festival of Passover, was taken hostage that night and tortured before he was impaled. On the wooden stake Jesus really died.

Among the Jews crucifixion was an anathema. (See Deuteronomy 21:22–23: “If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you impale him on a stake, you must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God: you shall not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.”)

They wanted to humiliate and frighten Jesus and his followers, and by putting Jesus on a stake in front of all to see, he had to be an example for those who thought they could speak against Pharisees and priests and against the ones in charge of the Empire.
Christian iconography usually shows the nails piercing the palms of Jesus’ hands on a horizontal beam. Nailing the palms of the hands is impossible, because the weight of the slumping body would have torn the palms in a very short time. The victim would have fallen from the cross while still alive.

In a 2011/2012 research on sediment disturbances bring in its study of cores and seismic activity near the Dead Sea (International Geology Review + Discovery News suggested: * + ** ) scientific data relating to the event described in Matthew 27. Those sediment disturbances can be combined with Biblical, astronomical and calendrical information to give a precise date of the crucifixion: Friday, April 3rd, 33 C.E.

Geologists Jefferson B. Williams, Markus J. Schwab and A. Brauer examined disturbances in sediment depositions to identify two earthquakes: one large earthquake in 31 B.C.E., and another, smaller quake between 26 and 36 C.E. In the abstract of their paper, the authors write,

“Plausible candidates include the earthquake reported in the Gospel of Matthew, an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion and was in effect ‘borrowed’ by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and a local earthquake between 26 and 36 AD that was sufficiently energetic to deform the sediments at Ein Gedi but not energetic enough to produce a still extant and extra-biblical historical record. If the last possibility is true, this would mean that the report of an earthquake in the Gospel of Matthew is a type of allegory.”

This quake, occurring during Jesus’ crucifixion, would have been too minor to be described by non-Biblical histories, but major enough to terrify the surrounding centurions.
Matthew explicitly reports strong seismic activity as the occasions of both the storm on the Sea of Galilee Jesus stilled in 8:24 (seismos megas) and the moving of the stone sealing Jesus’ tomb and in 28:2 (seismos . . . megas). In 27:51, he reports that the earth was shaken (he gE eseisthE) and stones split, but does not use the adjective “great” as in the other references.

The soldiers at the stake were confronted with the death of that Jewish rabbi, son of Miriam (Mary) and Joseph from the tribe of king David. They had seen the water coming out of his body and no doubt were convinced he was really death.

Those who know god can not die and as such also would not be able to stand up from the dead, would love to have others to believe the resurrection or that Jesus literally rose from the dead, should be taken only symbolically.

New York University professor Scott Korb, 37, a non-practicing Catholic, who once wanted to become a priest, says:

“The miracle of a bodily resurrection is something I rejected without moving away from its basic idea.”

“What I mean is that we can reach the lowest points of our lives, of going deep into a place that feels like death, and then find our way out again — that’s the story the Resurrection now tells me. And at Easter, this is expressed in community, and at its best, through the compassion of others.” 

That change — from a literal to a metaphorical approach — has given the story more power, he said.

“There is only one story to be told of a single man who dies and then rises,” Korb said. “But if we think about the metaphor of the Resurrection, that allows us to return to the story year after year and find new meaning in it.”

Reg Rivett, 27, finds the repetition of the Easter story a big problem. A youth minister at an evangelical house church near Edmonton, Canada, he said his belief that Jesus literally rose from the dead is central to his Christian identity and faith. Nonetheless, he still has conflicting feelings about how the Resurrection story is used in some circles.

“You hear about it year after year or at the end of every youth event — ‘This is why Jesus came and why he died,’” he said. “We tack it on to the end of everything and that is not what it should be. It’s like we’ve taken something that is very sacred and made it very common.”

That leads to some internal conflict on Easter Sunday, even as he goes to church with his family and joins them for a big meal.

“It becomes something I need to do and I do it out of respect for others,” he said.

To restore the Resurrection and the Easter story to its appropriate place, Rivett said, the church should “build” toward it throughout the year — place it in its context within the whole biblical saga.

“It is another story about Jesus, another piece of the whole Bible, but at the same time it is such a significant piece,” he said. “Neglecting it completely would be wrong, but over-saturation is wrong, too. It is hard to find a balance.”

Today we do find an over-saturation of the Easter tradition in the shops, where from the beginning of March they are already selling Easter eggs. Several Christians strangely never oppose such fertility symbols, and enjoy fantasising telling their kids about bells coming from Rome and throwing the eggs all over the garden, and hiding eggs all over in the house.Not many Christians seem to oppose those  symbols of fertility “handed down from the ancient ceremonial and symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals.

According to Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, the hunt for Easter eggs, supposedly brought by the Easter rabbit,

 “"is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite."” Some cultures believed that the decorated Easter egg “"could magically bring happiness, prosperity, health, and protection."”  (Traditional Festivals).

The name Easter, used in many lands, is not found in the Bible. The book  Medieval Holidays and Festivals tells us that 

“the holiday is named after the pagan Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, Eostre.”

Eostre or Eastre (hence Easter) goddess of fertility, according to the legend, opened the portals of Valhalla to receive Baldur, called the White God, because of his purity and also the Sun God, because his brow supplied light to mankind,”(The American Book of Days)

Like many European pagan customs the Church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them so that they could give the people something in which they beleived already for ages. They also knew people would not put away their traditions so easely and than would not convert to Catholicism.

The festival of Eostre was in celebration of the renewal of life in the spring and marked for many people who lived from the land, the sign that they could go back onto the fields to bring in assurance for their livelyhood. Without a good harvest they could not survive. Therefore it was felt important to do good to the gods so that they would be blessed.

for the Catholic church it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus, whose gospel they preached, because they presented Jesus as the new life and the bringer of light and life for all.

This adoption explains how in certain lands the Easter customs, such as Easter eggs, the Easter rabbit, and hot cross buns, came about. Concerning the custom of making hot cross buns,

 “with their shiny brown tops marked by a . . . cross,”

 the book Easter and Its Customs states:

 “The cross was a pagan symbol long before it acquired everlasting significance from the events of the first Good Friday, and bread and cakes were sometimes marked with it in pre-Christian times.”

Nowhere in Scripture do we find mention of these things, nor is there any evidence that the early disciples of Jesus gave them any credence. In fact, the apostle Peter tells us to

 “form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word, that through it [we] may grow to salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)

So why did the churches of Christendom adopt such obviously pagan symbols into their beliefs and practices? and why do people keep to those traditions of hiding eggs, eating Easter bread or cross buns?

Why when lots of people do not accept a taking out of the dead as a possible event, do they keep telling stories to their children of Easter bunnies and egg throwing bells.

For sure many do not put much accent on the real person they say they are celebrating. Not much is known about his ransom offer and on who he really was and on what he really did.

Christians should come to see the importance of following the teachings of Christ Jesus and on knowing the man Jesus about Whom God said 'This is my beloved son'.

Let us remember that that son of God really gave his life, died, and was taken out of the dead after three days in hell (the grave).

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From Winterdarkness into light of Spring

Sometimes we can have the impression we are Living in the Wilderness of the chaotic jungle of the industrial world.

Skulls remaining on the field and trees destroyed at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The darkness of the Winter-months has been with us for a long time. Week after week we got grey skies, winds which brought the the kill feeling deep in us. Every year in the month of February the undertakers have the busiest period of year. This year it was not so bad. The funeral directors could look so deadly serious having less people than normal, because the weather was not so bad. Notwithstanding we can see many gloomy faces running around.


People have demanding jobs, and are taken by the need to get enough money in the till to have the family living reasonably well. It all seems to be great? We seem to be living in a world full of luxury.  Like we may have a shadow of democracy, a varnish civilization many may be king in their home only in name. The banks own most of what people have. Under the show of pretence many do think to have 'many friends'. Social media may be booming but more and more do we find lonely people. Lots of what people pretend is only on the surface.

Glamour, cosmetics, we can find it everywhere around us in this varnished world where so much is not what it seems to be. In that world many do not mind to be the blind one. When they do not know they do not have to worry. Why would they take notice of others or to be worried about things far away from their own house, when they have already enough on their own mind.

So many people are so concentrated earning their money working on whet they call success, they forget to see where the real treasures lie. They are not feeling happy. They do not know where to look for the real happiness. They go looking at the wrong places. So many try their luck by games and by trying out one person after the other. They think all can be said and measured by the amount and quality of sex they can have.

They are not so much interested in talking or in having real deep going conversations. Reading serious or long articles for them is mostly considered a waste of time. today so much have to be so short and so quick. Everything may be casual. This is the world of cursoriness. Hastiness rules this world.

In our transitory being many forget the deeper values of life. they are blinded by all the materialism and are not interested in the spiritual.

Now Spring has come we should Not hold back and should be getting out of darkness.
Many may have been looking for ways to keep the Darkness Out.
Many are also Afraid of the Dark.

We should not Be Afraid From “Life’s Darkness”.Those wanting to get out of the dark corners of this world, can find a new place on the web, where people are asked to come together and to share their ideas, to bring a positive note in this life. there they understand that there is to much Darkness’s Pain.
Some might think they are in a sinking world…. but I am convinced it should not all be so bad, and we can do a lot to keep all together our heads above water. I am convinced that if more people should join hands they could do so much better and rally could bring some change. But they have to be willing to join hands, to contribute, and to go forwards, with heads up, accepting the diversity in this world.

Sink or Swim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is up to us all to chose if we want to Swim or Sink. Each individual has to make a choice: ~ Sink or Swim ~.

What is important is if we want to See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory.

When you think you have nothing to say or to show the new website wants to show you differently. You may already be connected to many Social networking Web sites, but that new site From Guestwriters does not want to pretend to become an other social network. We do believe you may love to spend time on such social networks. You may love to have short words and do some chit-chat, Putting your feelings into words and sharing them.

Where-ever you may live, be it in Winter or Summer, living in a small village or in a big town or even Living in the Wilderness, you might like to find a place of rest, peacefulness or a place where you can meditate or think about nice things. there is already so much bad news in this world, so why not having a look at better things. But not many sites present those nice things, the little miracles which happen here and there.

As itseirene wrote in a comment:

“Blogs will always come in different shapes and sizes, and with each shape and size is a platform to inspire and touch lives. I hope I have inspired you and I hope you inspire others. Let’s continue to do this together!”

With Spring in sight I also want to bring some positive corner out of the dark. Pleas do find Welcome to “From guestwriters” and have a look if you would not like to become  part of those people who bring positive news in this world.

We need more positive thoughts in this world, to bring more light and colour in this grim places.
Do you not feel like you can help us to achieve some goal of bringing happiness and showing more beauty to many more people?

Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:

1. Welcome to “From guestwriters”
2. Guestwriters for you
3. About Guest-writers
4. We all have to have dreams
5. Spring in sight
6. When you think you have nothing to say or to show
7. Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
8. Helping words
9. Spark of Positivism

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  +
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  Nearer at hand, birds and butterflies have come out to play in the sun, finally believing, perhaps, that the earlier daffodils were not such shameless teases after all, and that Spring has finally come.

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity

In "One Unholy Divided Church" Bob on Books writes:

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Christians above all others, it seems to me, should be into unity in the midst of our diversity. We worship a God who is Three yet One. It seems that if we focused more on the One who unites us, the One who redeems us, the One who in common we all worship, the One who calls us into mission, the One who has created and redeemed us all and the One who has spoken and shown himself through the prophets and apostles, we could possibly do a bit better at this unity thing than we are at present. What do you think?

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Additional literature:

Disunity in Christ (Part 1)

Disunity in Christ (Part 2)

Mandela the 'Terrorist' (Part 1) - By Their Strange Fruit

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Wanneer de jongere oor kreeg voor Arabische klanken

In Bekeerlingen en omgang keken wij naar diegene die van geloof wenste te veranderen.
 Bij zulk een verandering wordt de familie van die bekeerling ook getroffen. Voor hen doen zich ook vele veranderingen voor. Ofwel kunnen zij zich ook aanpassen en er mee trachten te leven ofwel nemen zij er afstand van en keren zij zich er helemaal van af.

Belangrijk is wel dat de personen er rond willen na gaan waar die bekeerling mee bezig is. Zodra dat er iets speciaals op valt van aandachtswijziging is het misschien neit slecht om een goed gesprek aan te gaan. Omstaanders kunnen eens horen waar de persoon eigenlijk in geïnteresseerd is en waar hij of zij mee bezig is. Of nog beter: de vraag stellen wie hij of zij eigenlijk wil zijn.

Hoe een zuster haar broer zag veranderen en opkeek van zijn blik in de verte, kan u lezen in Dit is mijn broertje, hij werd moslim.

Fotografe Saskia Aukema zag op straat steeds vaker moslims van wie ze vermoedde dat ze 'geen moslim van geboorte' waren.

"Vrouwen met blauwe ogen en een hoofddoek. Ik vroeg me af waarom mensen zich bekeren tot de islam. En hoe dat dan gaat. Het leek me een moeilijke keuze. Want de islam heeft geen goed imago in het nieuws."

 Ze las erover, keek documentaires, bezocht bijeenkomsten van vrouwen die zich wilden bekeren.

"Eerst zonder camera. Toen ik de mannen en vrouwen beter leerde kennen, begon ik met het maken van portretten."

Ze had gelezen dat fotografie binnen de islam moeilijk kon liggen, maar ze ondervond nauwelijks weerstand.

 "Tot mijn verbazing kreeg ik toestemming om een fotostudiootje in te richten op de Nationale Bekeerlingendag. Die wordt ieder jaar georganiseerd, er komen wel vijftienhonderd mensen op af. Veel mensen, mannen en vrouwen, lieten zich die dag fotograferen. Ook degenen die dat niet wilden, waren enthousiast over het project."

"Voordat ik aan het project begon kende ik nauwelijks moslims. Ik snap nu waarom mensen zich bekeren. Het geeft houvast. Als buitenstaander denk je dat je wordt beperkt, maar zo ervaren zij het zelf niet."

Saskia Aukema maakte tijdens haar project kennis met antropologe Vanessa Vroon-Najem. Zij deed jarenlang onderzoek naar bekeerlingen en is afgelopen woensdag aan de UvA op het onderwerp gepromoveerd (zie Bekeerlingen en omgang). Samen hebben ze het boek 'Bekeerd' gemaakt, met teksten van Vanessa en de foto's van Saskia. In het Amsterdam Museum is een tentoonstelling met hun werk vorige vrijdag voor publiek geopend.

Lees verder > Dit is mijn broertje, hij werd moslim.

© Saskia Aukema. Jeroen (de broer van Cathelijn Schilder), bekeerd in 2005

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