21AR26-29

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AR 26:29 - Your "exciting" afterlife awaits!

In this issue:

HOMOSEXUALITY - "gay Christian," "double repentance"

LIFE AFTER DEATH - the "transition to an exciting world to come"

SELF-HELP - religion is good for you (pick whichever one you like - or none at all) to make your life "more meaningful"

+ Here comes "Christian Mindfulness"

WOKENESS - biblical inerrancy = "white supremacist authoritarianism"

Apologia Report 26:29 (1,534)
July 21, 2021

HOMOSEXUALITY
Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church's Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality, by Greg Johnson (Pastor, Memorial Presbyterian Church [PCA]) [1] -- Zondervan explains: "At the start of the gay rights movement in 1969, evangelicalism's leading voices cast a vision for gay people who turn to Jesus. It was C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer and John Stott who were among the most respected leaders within theologically orthodox Protestantism. We see with them a positive pastoral approach toward gay people, an approach that viewed homosexuality as a fallen condition experienced by some Christians who needed care more than cure. With the birth and rise of the ex-gay movement, the focus shifted from care to cure. As a result, there are an estimated 700,000 people alive today who underwent conversion therapy in the United States alone. Many of these patients were treated by faith-based, testimony-driven parachurch ministries centered on the ex-gay script. Despite the best of intentions, the movement ended with very troubling results. ... Woven throughout the book will be Richard Lovelace's 1978 call for a 'double repentance' in which gay Christians repent of their homosexual sins and the church repents of its homophobia - putting on display for all the power of the gospel."

For helpful background, see: "A Response to Greg Johnson's Interview - The Gospel and Christian Identity," <www.bit.ly/3eG1yMG> wherein David Garner (Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary) engages with Johnson's online dialogue with Preston Sprinkle <www.bit.ly/3hOUVKa> which you'll find here <www.bit.ly/36R2JVg>

(Note for long-time AR readers: Beware of possible identity confusion with controversial ex-Mormon Greg Johnson of Standing Together.)

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LIFE AFTER DEATH
The Case for Heaven: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for Life After Death, by Lee Strobel [2] -- in this "case," Strobel considers the "the evidence for the afterlife and offers credible answers to the most provocative questions about what happens when we die, near-death experiences, heaven, and hell. ... With a balanced approach, Strobel examines the alternative of Hell and the logic of damnation, and gives a careful look at reincarnation, universalism, the exclusivity claims of Christ, and other issues related to the topic of life after death."

Included is an unfortunate turn-of-phrase: "Through fascinating conversations with respected scholars and experts - a neuroscientist from Cambridge University, a researcher who analyzed a thousand accounts of near-death experiences, and an atheist-turned-Christian-philosopher - Strobel offers compelling reasons for why death is not the end of our existence but a transition to an exciting world to come."

(Readers might imagine one of two inevitable outcomes in which two people are in eternal fire, and one asks the other, "Isn't this exciting?")

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SELF-HELP
How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion, by David DeSteno [3] -- Simon & Schuster explains that the book "shows why religious practices and rituals are so beneficial to those who follow them - and to anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof). ... DeSteno <davedesteno.com> reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being. ... [He also] details how belief itself enhances physical and mental health. But you don't need to be religious to benefit from the trove of wisdom that religion has to offer. Many items in religion's 'toolbox' can help the body and mind whether or not one believes. How God Works offers advice on how to incorporate many of these practices to help all of us live more meaningful, successful, and satisfying lives." Any questions?

Related: The American Enterprise Institute offers "New findings on why faith is still good for the nation" <www.bit.ly/3BoCeV9>

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Surely it was only a matter of time before someone brought us this approach. Zondervan's promo tells us that in A Counselor's Guide to Christian Mindfulness: Engaging the Mind, Body, and Soul in Biblical Practices and Therapies [4], Regina Chow Trammel and John Trent "offer counselors training in mindfulness-based therapies such as dialectical behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. These therapies have been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of many mental health issues, blending elements in the fields of neuroscience, social science, and religious training. They offer a Christian perspective that will be extremely helpful in helping Christian counselors and therapists to confidently use mindfulness interventions with those they treat and help. ... This book fills a gap for Christian counselors and therapists who are eager for a resource that teaches mindfulness skills from a purposefully Christian and biblical perspective."

(While the promotional material fails to indicate it, hopefully the book itself explains how Christ is involved in their approach - and contrasts with the Buddhist basis for "mindfulness.")

More AR resources on mindfulness and related controversies at <www.bit.ly/3ezok92>

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WOKENESS
We suppose this also, was inevitable. If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority, by Dr. Angela N. Parker (assistant professor of New Testament and Greek, Mercer University) <www.bit.ly/3xyTQf3> [5] is championed by Eerdmans as "A challenge to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy that calls into question how Christians are taught more about the way of Whiteness than the way of Jesus. ... Dr. Parker's experience of being taught to forsake her embodied identity in order to contort herself into the stifling construct of Whiteness is common among American Christians, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. This book calls the power structure behind this experience what it is: White supremacist authoritarianism. Drawing from her perspective as a Womanist New Testament scholar, Dr. Parker describes how she learned to deconstruct one of White Christianity's most pernicious lies: the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility."

Also see Womanist Biblical Interpretation: Expanding the Discourse, Dr. Gay L. Byron and Dr. Vanessa Lovelace, eds. <www.bit.ly/3wj7IbC>

For more on feminist theology from past issues of Apologia Report, see <www.bit.ly/36eFft1>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church's Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality, by Greg Johnson (Zondervan, September 2021, hardcover, 304 pages) <www.bit.ly/3qLZpnu>

2 - The Case for Heaven: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for Life After Death, by Lee Strobel (Zondervan, September 2021, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.bit.ly/3xlU4pF>

3 - How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion, by David DeSteno (Simon & Schuster, September 2021, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.bit.ly/36hhO2m>

4 - A Counselor's Guide to Christian Mindfulness: Engaging the Mind, Body, and Soul in Biblical Practices and Therapies, by Regina Chow Trammel and John Trent (Zondervan, September 2021, paperback, 272 pages) <www.bit.ly/3hhizyw>

5 - If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority, by Dr. Angela N. Parker (Eerdmans, September 2021, paperback, 128 pages) <www.bit.ly/3yvJTit>

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