tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post5396395724397908622..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: The Resurrection and Fake NewsLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-51845826513258848432017-04-19T16:10:40.568-05:002017-04-19T16:10:40.568-05:00I appreciate Facebook friend Naoko Jalbert posting...I appreciate Facebook friend Naoko Jalbert posting the following comments on FB.<br /> <br />"I appreciated your statements, 'I am thinking now that the most important thing is not to come up with new and impressive arguments but to approach the world in the post- Easter followers of Jesus did: with undying hope and unflagging energy to share the good news that life is more powerful than death and that love is more powerful than hate.'<br /><br />"Amen for that!!! <br /><br />"And I enjoyed Russian Easter Festival Overture very much."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-48645465088720607652017-04-18T16:26:57.969-05:002017-04-18T16:26:57.969-05:00Thanks for your comments, Debra. It was good to he...Thanks for your comments, Debra. It was good to hear here from you again.<br /><br />I think you are correct about the propaganda and "fake news" of Pax Romana--and the teachings of the "humble rabbi" who encountered/opposed that mindset. <br /><br />It just may be that we now need to pay close attention to that same teaching in these years that some call the time of "Pax Americana." LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-70166222967476067442017-04-18T14:41:19.774-05:002017-04-18T14:41:19.774-05:00Hi, Leroy! When I think of propaganda and "f...Hi, Leroy! When I think of propaganda and "fake news" as it relates to the Jesus event, I think of "Pax Romana." Some scholars call it a propaganda campaign designed to disguise just how cruel the Roman hegemony at that time was. That cruelty (used to control the masses) was on full display with every crucifixion, of course, but especially this one -- the crucifixion of the humble rabbi who spouted the gentle insubordination that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, who told us that the service that matters is not to bullies, emperors, Herodians and such, but to one another, and especially the naked, hungry, ill and imprisoned. The rabbi who revealed the religious elites of his time as money-grubbing hypocrites and toadies beholden to rituals, hierarchies and buildings at the expense of God's love for God's people. DebraSYhttp://www.justmaintaining.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-87151347466893222772017-04-16T08:18:42.780-05:002017-04-16T08:18:42.780-05:00Larry, I appreciate your thoughtful, and thought-p...Larry, I appreciate your thoughtful, and thought-provoking, comments. <br /><br />The specific example of “fake news” in Vaters’s article was that found in the Matthew 28 passage. But your point is well taken that there are two different levels or kinds of “reality,” and contrasting “fake news” to “Easter faith” may be confusing those levels/kinds in unhelpful ways.<br /><br />The last part of your comments is especially important, I think. I have just finished reading Wm. Paul Young’s book “Lies We Believe about God” (2017). (He, as you know, is the author of “The Shack.”) I may write a blog article soon about that book, for as you say, there is a lot of “fake news” about “God” or lies many people believe about God based on that “fake news.”<br /><br />Your closing question is certainly one that needs to be considered well by us Christian believers today. Although I spent much of my academic life working on theological issues and was particularly interested in apologetics, I am thinking now that the most important thing is not to come up with new and impressive arguments but to approach the world in the way the post-Easter followers of Jesus did: with undying hope and unflagging energy to share the good news that life is more powerful than death and that love is more powerful than hate. LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-36870847957623932912017-04-16T07:46:08.604-05:002017-04-16T07:46:08.604-05:00Early this morning I was happy to receive this Eas...Early this morning I was happy to receive this Easter greeting from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard.<br /><br />"EASTER GREETINGS! to you, Leroy, and June. I hope you have a joyous day.<br /><br />"And thanks for the link to the Russian Easter Overture. It is a piece of music I have longed enjoyed."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-52418120795365432622017-04-15T18:16:52.280-05:002017-04-15T18:16:52.280-05:00No argument from me that Christian faith in the re...No argument from me that Christian faith in the resurrection of Jesus is not “fake news”. On the other hand, it seems a bit facile to treat an event of a belief that cannot be proved, an event in the realm of personal faith, as comparable to an observable event that can reported on the evening news. No doubt it could be part of a clever sermon, sounding as up to date as the evening news, to treat the resurrection celebrated at Easter by Christians, as real news. After all, the gospel itself connotes “good news.”<br />My reluctance to want to jump on this contrast of “fake news” and “Easter faith” is based on a conviction that these are two different kinds of “realities”, one dealing with the actions of contemporary political figures and the other a complex acceptance in one’s life that life ending in death has a meaning beyond inevitable physical death.<br />On the other hand, again, is it a kind of “fake news” to continue preach about “God” as a personal being with feelings that can change his/her mind based on human pleas, about “heaven” as a physical place somewhere above, and about human “immortality” as life beyond death where husbands and wives and beloved children will be back together as they are in this life? Not that these types of sermons are based on an intentional desire to deceive, but what kind of scriptural interpretation and theological understanding are such sermons based on? Likely, fairly literal acceptance of a story from the New Testament, without mention of literary genre, or comparing multiple diverse accounts, or even taking account of Jesus’ own reported statement that that is not what resurrection is, but is more like being an “angel” (Mt 22, 23-33), or of Paul’s seemingly contradictory positing that there can be a “spiritual body” “in heaven” (I Cor. 15, 12-58). How can we or do we present “spiritual bodies” and “heaven” as news in today’s world”<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13146622876379785156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-77917326888012559092017-04-15T09:01:16.401-05:002017-04-15T09:01:16.401-05:00I have not known anything about Hank Hanegraaff, b...I have not known anything about Hank Hanegraaff, but I had seen the article about his converting to the Orthodox Church. When I saw that I wondered if you were familiar with him and his move to Orthodoxy.<br />LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-63181060776978663482017-04-15T08:49:26.224-05:002017-04-15T08:49:26.224-05:00A wonderful orchestral tribute to the resurrection...A wonderful orchestral tribute to the resurrection of Christ Jesus. !المسيح قام! حقا قا <br /><br />Our church has sent out missionaries to help "convert" the Orthodox to evangelicalism. But the witness of those facing persecution, torture, and execution for their belief in the risen Isa al Masih leads me closer to their discipleship. Then I hear that prominent evangelical apologist Hank Hanegraaff has moved into Orthodoxy. This is a sojourn with which I identify.<br /><br />Two years back I was traveling with some exchange students and stopped at McDonald's mid-afternoon. The lady in front of me asked the cashier why it was so crowded. She responded, "Easter". But the lady pushed back - "That is not until tomorrow." To which the cashier replied, "He's already alive, so we can be joyful now, but tomorrow we will celebrate." The manager just smiled. He is risen indeed!<br /><br />ن1sojournerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08541170856645246334noreply@blogger.com