Blog - Page 228 of 318 - John H Armstrong

My Dialog with an Orthodox Priest

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:49-05:00June 10th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

Last Friday evening I shared in a dialog with Fr. Jon Braun, a priest of the Orthodox Church. It was a fine evening and I enjoyed connecting with Jon Braun again. I first heard Jon speak as a college student in 1967 at the University of Alabama. His subject was "Love, Sex and Dating." Believe it or not he was giving the same teaching on Saturday to young adults in Bloomington. (The more some things change the more they remain the same I suppose.)

Back when I first heard Fr. Braun he was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. He left Campus Crusade in 1969. He is a delightful Christian, now 75 years old and very healthy and sharp. He was most charitable and gracious to me personally. I hope I was the same to him. I am beginning to blog a new series about the back-and-forth of our evening dialog at my missional site. The first post […]

When Should You Leave Your Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:49-05:00June 10th, 2008|Categories: The Church|

As virtually everyone knows by now Senator Barack Obama has removed himself, and his family, from the membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. This happened following the sermon preached at Trinity by Father Michael Pfleger, a priest who has been a friend to Obama for some time and a man who even had a volunteer role in his campaign for a season. Father Pfleger has been a popular priest inChicago for some years, serving an African-American Catholic parish as a Roman Catholic priest.

All politics aside I am saddened that all of these events came to this place. I can’t help but think that this controversy ended poorly for the Obama and his church. Whereas he once said he could no more deny his friendship with Jeremiah Wright than […]

Is God Green? Making Sense of the Environmental Debate Among Christians

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:49-05:00June 9th, 2008|Categories: Environmentalism|

Is God Green?
Bill Moyers on America
Films for the Humanities & Sciences (2006)
60 minutes

The issue of the environment has clearly appeared on the radar screen of evangelical Christians over the past eight years. Is this a good thing or a not so good thing? A debate now rages among high-profiled evangelical leaders, most of whom know little or nothing about science. At the same time ordinary Christians are paying more attention to the environment than ever before, or so it seems to me.

This is the subject of a recent Bill Moyers’ documentary presentation called: Is God Green? It was produced in 2006, right in the middle of the fierce back-and-forth debate of two sides in the evangelical world. Moyers suggests that millions of Christians are now “green.” (I think his way of determining this sizable number is questionable, as I will soon show.) These Christians, he does show quite effectively, have taken […]

The Most Comprehensive Truth of Christianity

By John Armstrong|2008-06-07T05:00:00-05:00June 7th, 2008|Categories: The Trinity|

Theologian Charles W. Lowry has called the doctrine of the Trinity "the most comprehensive and the most nearly all-inclusive formulation of the truth of Christianity." I happen to agree with him profoundly.

Many scholars actually believe that the bulk of truly Christian doctrine is nothing more than "an extended commentary" on Christ’s reference to God as Trinity in the Great Commission (cf. Matthew 28:19-20). No truly missional conversation can advance without this "extended commentary."

It should be noted that "name" in Matthew 28 is singular, which prompted Karl Barth to strikingly call this (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) the "Christian name" of God. And contemporary theologian Thomas Oden has added, "From the time of the apostolic fathers, triunity has been considered definitive of Christian teaching of God, accepted alike by Protestants, Catholics, and Eastern church communions . . . . It is not merely speculative or theoretical or incidental or optional teaching, but is regarded by consensus as essential to the Christian understanding of God."

You will often hear certain Reformed and Lutheran conservatives cite Luther’s famous line that justification by […]

Telling Our ACT 3 Story

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00June 6th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

At our May 12-14 ACT 3 board meeting we decided to produce a video version of our story. This will likely come in three formats. One will be a short You Tube version for as wide an audience as possible. A second will be a 5-7 minute version designed for groups and churches to see in mission conferences and other public settings. People who invite me to speak can use this shorter version to introduce me and to tell our story. The longest version, ten to twelve minutes, will be for individual use on DVD. We want to make and distribute these copies as widely as possible. All three will, of course, be available online.

As we discussed our mission at the May meeting we realized that we do not have an effective way of telling people our story. We want to tell people why we exist, what we do and how effective the mission is in fulfilling our God-given mandate. Our goal is not publishing, writing blogs, or preaching/teaching. It is changing lives and churches. It means mentoring and equipping. It means […]

Cardinal George's Response to Father Pflegler

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00June 5th, 2008|Categories: Separation of Church & State|

I have made the point numerous times on this site, and in my ACT 3 Weekly E-zine columns, that ministers ought to avoid partisan political positions and speech. I also argued that Governor Huckabee would have been wise to give up his ordination when he ran for office, as I would say for any other minister. The radically different roles of minister and political servant of the state are too easily confused. We ought to work very hard to correct this confusion.

We got a great reminder of how this can be done when Father Michael Pflegler spoke out on May 25 about Hillary Clinton and turned a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ into an endorsement of Barack Obama.
The swift response of Francis Cardinal George of Chicago was beautiful and correct. He reminded Father Pflegler that his role was to serve his parish as a priest, not to engage in partisan politics. Pflegler has done this for many years and […]

An Orthodox and Evangelical Conversation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00June 4th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

This Friday evening, at 7:00 EDT, I will take part in a public dialog with Father Jon Braun (Orthodox), at All Saints Orthodox Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Anyone near Bloomington is welcome to attend. Information is available from All Saints Church. The host pastor is Father Peter Gillquist, the son of the Orthodox evangelist and church-planting leader who was a major leader in Campus Crusade for Christ when I was in college. In fact, Jon Braun was also a leader in Campus Crusade for Christ in those days and had a wonderful influence upon my life personally.

We will each present our journey of faith in ten minutes and then we will each speak of the strengths of the other person’s position and then conclude with three weaknesses. Response will follow and questions will be taken. I look forward to this evening and hope friends in Indiana who can come will attend. If a tape is made I will get it on the ACT 3 site as soon as possible. You will also find, on the ACT 3 Web site, […]

How We Define Race and Why

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00June 3rd, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

When Father Michael Pflegler, a white Catholic priest serving a Chicago South Side back congregation, railed on Hillary Clinton nine days ago people were rightly appalled. (By the way, Father Michael Pflegler has been around quite awhile and has had a very effective ministry that looks and feels like a charismatic black congregation, not a typical Roman Catholic parish in the city!) His silly tirade of May 25 created a whole new media buzz about Obama and Trinity Church. It then led to Obama’s withdrawal from his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ. What Pflegler said, as he adopted a mock voice to represent Clinton, was (in effect): “I am white. I’m entitled. And a black man is stealing my show.” When this clip made it to You Tube it became instant news. (How much has You Tube changed the way we get the news and how fast we respond to it? This is another case of how techne squeezes out thought and […]

Why Do So Many Young Voters Love Barack Obama?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00June 2nd, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Whether you like Barack Obama or not there are multitudes of young voters who are energized by his candidacy. We have not seen this for decades. (In my lifetime I can think only of George McGovern, who energized the young powerfully during the Vietnam era because of his anti-war stance, and JFK back in 1960, with his idealism, youthful looks and the image of a profile in courage with new vision.) Barack Obama not only appears vigorous and youthful but he seems to offer new ideas that energize the youngest voters and give them hope.

A lot of pundits have offered a lot of reasons for his appeal. Some of this magnetism is to be linked to "Bush fatigue" and the Iraq War. But something about Barack Obama has appealed to the young with or without these negative factors.
It can not […]

Peggy Noonan on Scott McClellan's Controversial Book

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:50-05:00May 31st, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Peggy Noonan’s thoughtful and fair perspective on contemporary politics often amazes me. I read her "Declarations" column in the Wall Street Journal every Saturday, always with real anticipation. Such was the case when she responded to Barack Obama’s famous speech given after the first Jeremiah Wright controversy. She was quite moved by the speech and took a lot of heat for saying so. (Astute readers will also recall that Peggy Noonan wrote a personal memoir on Ronald Reagan, for whom she worked, and a biography of Pope John Paul, whom she loved deeply!)

Well, Ms. Noonan did it again today. She wrote a piece titled, "But Is It True?" Her response is to Scott McClellan’s newly released memoir,
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and the Culture of Deception. Again Ms. Noonan surprises many by asking the question that really matters. (I should noted, that I have not read the book and may not take the time to do so. Ms. Noonan […]