Religion

use your (or someone else's) magic greek powers and tell us if there's any credence to this.

http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/gay_couple.html
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not changing until Burn Notice starts up again.
02MAR2011

I'm not Chaos, nor do I have magical greek powers, but simply going by their own definition, that just seems like too much reading between the lines and inserting the idea you are wanting to find. Reminds me of the claim that David and Jonathan were lovers because of their close friendship. They are going to have to find something a little more convincing to make the jump from favorite boy slave to sexual partner. Maybe the little guy was just a hard worker and good at what he did.
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"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. "
St. Francis of Assisi

Chaos Scade posted...
This sounds like a caricature of conservative American Jeezus. You know, of course, that things aren't black and white in Orthodoxy. Sin is harmatia, missing the mark, not a breaking of an inexhaustive penal code. If the exegesis given by the author is accurate (which I'm not saying it necessarily is), I would actually see Christ's response as being in keeping with what we do already know of Christ and the way that I have come to see the way in which the successors of His appointees within Orthodoxy would deal with the same issue.

I'm sorry for interrupting this convo, but seriously, sin is missing the mark in Protestantism, too. That's the meaning of the Greek word for sin. But sin is not limited to one dimension. Please do not call Protestantism "black and white" when that's what you're being. Sin is not just the breaking of an inexhaustive penal code (which is only true if we're talking hyperbole), nor is it just missing the mark, nor is it just dishonoring God, nor is it just a corrupt nature. It's all of them and more.

This is just the thing with the atonement. The atonement is not just Christ being victorious over death, nor is it just Christ being victorious over Satan, nor is it just Christ being an example of sacrificial love, nor is it just the exchange of Christ's righteousness for ours, nor is it just a legal reparation of wrongs. It's all of them and more.

Protestantism is not quite as one-dimensional as you seem to paint it. We may focus on things like penal substitutionary atonement, but that's not because we do not hold to other atonement theories, but because we have to defend it more often because many disagree with that particular model.
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Everything that doesn't have to do with elephants is irrelephant.
~The Christian Hedonist~

narcotic_narc posted...
having been an evangelical protestant for most of my life, i can rather safely say that your statement is valid, but only because of the rampant cherry-picking that's tacitly endorsed by the majority of the the churches i've run across in my time; talking to your average evangelical about theology is like talking to an average 10th grader about biochemistry. they might be able to give you some sweeping generalizations, but there's no substance or original thought behind it.

That's a fair statement. Your average evangelical cares about the basic doctrines and that's about it. But I would say that differs from church to church (some churches will stress doctrinal education more) and from individual to individual (some individuals are more prone to learn doctrine). I have a feeling that you could easily find a lot of similar theological lack in either the Roman Catholic or the Eastern Orthodox churches. My personal experience is that theological simplicity is not merely a Protestant phenomenon.

i've never found people from different evangelical protestant churches to have much in common, theologically speaking, beyond Sola Scriptura and "the baptism of the holy spirit".

First of all, sola scriptura. as it was classically understood by the Reformers, is not taught or understood by the majority of American Protestantism. Most unknowingly adhere to something closer to solo scriptura (you could read The Shape of Sola Scriptura by Keith Mathison if you wanted to know more about that). Second, my experience is the opposite in regards to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is generally focused on in charismatic/Pentecostal circles which is hardly representative of evangelicalism. Most evangelicals would probably prefer to disregard the baptism of the Spirit altogether, but it's in the Bible, so you cannot really do that. So they tend just not to speak about it. Unless you're talking to charismatics.
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Everything that doesn't have to do with elephants is irrelephant.
~The Christian Hedonist~