Fundamentalist Christians have for some time insisted that the decline in the traditional Mainline Churches – (United Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran (ELCA), to name a few – is due to the 'liberal' leanings of those churches; to our lack of commitment to biblical fundamentals.
There is no possibility you can mistake the Bible Belt when you're there. Just look along any highway. One year while driving on an interstate I saw the towering billboard: Where are you going? Heaven? Or hell?
I’ve been asked about the connection between “belligerent evangelism” — the 19th century kind that may have been practiced by Presbyterian missionary, Henry Spalding — and the monstrous issue of “commercialism and the commodification of the Gospel” that may or may not plague the North American Church today.
St. Patrick’s Day is not just an excuse to get drunk. March 17 is the anniversary of Patrick’s death in 460 AD and is today celebrated around the world.
People proselytize in a variety of ways. Some do it raucously, like Harold Camping and Kenneth Copeland did through radio and TV for decades. Others do it quietly, perhaps with wily bumper stickers.
On a recent rainy Saturday, about 125 Catholics packed a basement conference room, many of them older, most of them lay people. Many were representing their parishes. They gathered here to learn how to spread the faith, a concept that is both fundamental to Christianity and nearly foreign to modern Roman Catholics.