Eclectic Christian

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I have had some people wonder why I haven’t had any posts for a while.

I am working on a book that takes up much of my spare time. Details will be coming in a couple of months. Until then, feel free to visit Internet Monk where I may have the occasional contribution.

“How my parents broke the mold” has now been published at Internet Monk

While I am quite content at my church, many people in general do have difficulties at church. For those who a struggling with church, what are some solutions? Here are my thoughts on the matter along with Internet Monk reader responses.

Join the discussion at InternetMonk.com where I have written about my response to a case of academic plagiarism.

If you know of anyone with a missing child or loved one, I encourage you to visit the website of Courage to Cope.  They are a great resource for people in need.

I have a great appreciation for my Pastor. I appreciate his perspectives on most issues, and I appreciate his leadership within the church. However, for the last two years we have disagreed quite strongly on one particular significant issue. What that issue is, is not important to the topic at hand, but suffice to say, it is an issue that has divided many churches in the past, and had the potential to cause much dissension or division in our church as well.

But it didn’t.
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My previous post followed up on a discussion that Michael Spencer had been having about mental illness and demon possesion.  I gave an example from personal experiene about mental illness where I felt that it could be shown that there was no spiritual component.  Now I want to give an example of my first hand experience with demon possession.

Just to set the record straight, in 46 years in the church I have had just one experience with the demonic.  Only one.  I am not the type to see a demon behind every bush.  But I have had one experience that I think can help us understand how Jesus knew when people needed healing or needed a demon cast out of them.
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I have been following with interest the posts that Michael Spencer has been making concerning mental illness and demon possession.  You see, I have had first hand experience with both, in two very different settings.  Here is a look at the first.

When I was growing up, my Grandmother, who lived just a couple of miles away, suffered from Schizophrenia. It would manifest itself most when people, usually family, would come to visit.  If she misplaced something, she would accuse whoever had visited last of stealing it from her.  The incident I remember most clearly was being accused of stealing her piano music to support my non-existant drug habit.  Bet you didn’t know that there is a black market for sheet music!  It seems pretty comical now, but back then it was anything but. Eventually my parents started cutting back on our visits, as they were just too difficult.
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By Michael Bell

This post was originally published at Internet Monk.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
- Bob Dylan 1963

For years I have heard about the many changes that have been taking place within the Christian World. Churches and denominations growing, churches and denominations shrinking. We have had a pretty good idea of who has been growing, and who has been shrinking, but with birth rates, death rates and other factors, it has been pretty hard to pin down the source of the growth and decline. Have Evangelicals been growing? If so, has the growth come from the non religious, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, or other religions? What sort of outflows have they experienced that have offset the inputs? Is the back door larger or smaller than the front door? How are the Catholics, the Mainline Protestants, the non religious and others doing?

Well now we know.

A few days ago, The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of a survey entitled Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S. This was followup to their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey that they released last year.

I have been busy in the last week doing a bit of reverse engineering on the numbers to represent the shifts in belief as best and as clearly as I can. Here is the resulting chart. You can click on it to see the full sized version.

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