Author: Rubel Shelly

From Eden forward, Satan has been telling two vicious lies about God.

When these terrible things happen, it is not unusual to hear a government official, news reporter, or spokesman for some group say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.”

Gene Autry is a name hardly known to anyone under 30. People from the next couple of decades might recognize him as the owner of the Anaheim Angels of Major League Baseball. But it takes people from two or three additional decades to recall him as the “Singing Cowboy” of radio, movies, and television.

Sometimes we pray like pagans and barter with God. “God, if you will do this or that,” we beg, “then I will stop what I’ve been doing and start doing something else!” Pagan prayer – and much that passes for Christian, I fear – is like a giant roulette wheel at a gambling casino.

Where does faith fit in with the ordinary lives of ordinary people?

Maybe some don’t want to tell a painful truth for the sake of genuine compassion that recoils from causing upset and anguish of heart. That is fully understandable. But what happens when the truth does come? From a stranger? That they will discover you knew all along? Then the pain is even greater.

Have you noticed how candid the Bible is about its heroes? It doesn’t whitewash the flaws and foibles of its characters.

From reading the headlines, you’d think church people occasionally get together, ask what they’d have to do to make Christianity look foolish, and then set about to implement their strategy! So clergy have affairs. Leaders of Christian ministries steal or squander money – or say incredibly silly things in God’s name.

We live in a time of such moral confusion that nobody can sin. Each person simply makes up his or her own rules. And nobody can call anything “wrong” or “sinful” without being a bigot.

Lots of words have been so devalued of late that they tend to confuse rather than enlighten. Take the word “love” as a classic example. I can “love” everything from blueberry pancakes to comfortable shoes to my child to Jesus Christ. Surely there is a need for some type of clarification along this gamut of usage.

It is only fair that you should be warned: The Bible you have on your desk or shelf is unsafe. It could do strange, unsettling things to you.

No, there is no “Breaking News” here. Wolf Blitzer hasn’t reported a new archaeological find just outside Jerusalem. No brain scan was just discovered. And there is no long-hidden-in-the-Vatican-archives suicide note from Judas Iscariot. It’s just that the events of last week got me to thinking about some of the most notorious villains of history. What psychological anomaly made them do it?