Of all the convictions that unite Common Grounds readers and writers, it is a hope to speak to the questions being asked by those outside the boundaries of Jesus’ followers that I appreciate the most. Different kinds of questions emerge as we seek to bring insight from Scripture to the skeptic, but are we being a “blessing to the Gentiles” if we refuse to entertain those questions.   Lately, I have noted a handful of persistent questions coming from those watching Christianity from the outside in. First, I keep hearing questions about the Bible’s blood and gore. “Why all the...

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There, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see a decidedly curious picture of the central figure of Christianity. Jesus of Nazareth, soon to be ironically hailed King of the Jews, awaits the events that would surround his death. And he’s terribly shaken.The scene would not be so interesting were it not for the fact that so many of his followers would face death with far more courage than the emotionally torn man we see before us. Generations of Christian martyrs would go to their deaths without so much as a blink, not a shadow of turning. Jesus, however, is on...

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My impression is that faithful readers of Common Grounds Online do not suffer from any want of critique from the more fundamentalistic strains of evangelicalism still dominating the religious experience of so many in America today. For most of us, the pendulum is still swinging quite in the opposite direction without too much help, thank you very much. Yet a recent Saturday morning children’s devotional I attended warrants some comment.Halftime at my 9-year-old daughter’s basketball league is given to “devotional time,” due to the fact, I assume, that she plays in a church league. The speaker opened his message by...

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I used to hate it when I was young and people would say what I’m getting ready to say.I have a vivid memory of a spat between my father and older sister back in the ‘80’s over, of all things, the movie Footloose. My sister had taken a bit of a shine, as did most teenage girls in that decade, to Ren McCormack and his misunderstood rebel ways. My father had taken the position that the film had glorified youth rebellion and was far from something to be celebrated. I watched and kept score as the two traded volleys over...

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