Belly sin...

[Mathias_Ice]

Wow, you guys(all you guys) are all over the place on this one. Which is to be expected and is appreciated from such a diverse and, for the most part, intelligent group.

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
It is not ironic that Tolkien was a Christian, it is ironic that he was a very devout Christian. A lot of authors (in Christian-dominated countries) that write evil occult stuff are Christians.

This isn't ironic or should it surprise anyone. People who profess to be Christians find themselves on opposite ends of just about every spectrum imaginable. There are "Christians" who support abortion, the Pope believes evolution to be fact, the Anglican church believes it is okay to promote practicing homosexuals in their denomination, there are denominations that believe music is bad, some believe only rock music is bad, some do not believe in the Virgin Birth, etc., etc. There is even division among, what was the term... Fundamental Christians, an example being Dr. James Dobson and Richard Lamb being on different sides of Alabama's Judge Moore debate.

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
Third, this sort of massive fingerpointing at non-Christians misses the point of the Christian faith entirely. I seem to recall Christ saying something about removing a plank in one's own eye before going speck-hunting in others'...

Context, my friend, context. The context of what Christ is saying here is talking about believers correcting other believers. He is cautioning that all are sinners and all deserve death. He goes on very soon after to caution against "throwing pearls to swine." Only by discerning the swine can we avoid wasting our pearls.

This is from a different thread but I figure I'd plug my response in here as it seems to fit the general theme of things:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:

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Originally posted by Mathias_Ice:
Ah, good old Disney.When I was a kid you could trust them for good, clean fun. And now, like 99.9% of all American corporations, the bottom line and political correctness is all that matters.

Gotta love general Christian tolerance...

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As a Christian, I am to be tolerant, that is loving despite everything, of all individuals. I am also to "Hate what is evil." Christ's work on the cross frees the Christian from sin, it does nothing for the sins of corporations, Groups or countries.

So, having said all this, I believe the most important thing to being a Christian is to glorify God. Does everything I do live up to this, hell no. Fortunately, my God is a gracious and forgiving God. Do the works of Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Rawlings glorify God? This seems to be the issue. I would say the first two do through the allegory and symbolism they use, while I'm not sure about Rawlings. I have only read one of the Potter books and I personally wasn't all that impressed with either the story telling or the story. I did hear a snippet from an interview with Rawlings (mind you, on a Christian radio program) where she was talking about her books introducing kids to the occult. When considering whether to expose your children (or yourself for that matter) to anything, what the Christian needs to determine is if that movie, book, music, TV show or what ever, glorifies the Lord. While the web page mentioned at the beginning of this thread may help with determining this, the best thing to do is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment in such matters. Of course there are some Christians who don't believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today's Christian. Go figure.

It's interesting that this type of topic has come up as I have been thinking a lot lately about discernment. More on how Christian leaders champion certain issues and whether this effort by these leaders is glorifying God, or whether the efforts and considerable resources of these leaders would be better spent on something more "God glorifying."

Maybe all this should go to a new thread, or not, but I would appreciate feed back from all.