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Below is a flyer for an event put on by Trinity Law School, Trinity Graduate School, and The First Southern Baptist Church of Downey.
Topics include:
– The Sanctity of Life
– The New Atheism
– Aesthetics and the Christian
– Postmodernism and the Emergent Church
Click the link below for the flyer and full information.
Crucial Issues for Christians (Free Event) pdf
Doug
***Updated 7/23/08***
The lectures for this seminar can now be downloaded here.
Christian Theology 
Nice to see some response. Regarding Chris’s comment 3, Living in Los Angeles does not mean that we cannot raise awareness, contact our local representatives etc. In fact we are more empowered than locals who are killed if they speak out. Bill Monette’s suggestion for a Christian information distribution hub is intriguing. There are some christian journals I have run across that expose suffering the mainstream media is largely silent about, but the circulation is relatively low. A focused & ecumenical web site could be a good avenue for change and opportunity for unity within the church. I am remided of the effect world public opinion had on ending Apartheid in South Africa & am hopeful something like that could be done again.
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Hey Steve:
1) I emphatically agree. If the suffering people were more real to us, if we could travel to distant places instantly with an angel of God, as in a dream, as Scrooge did, if I could take my 15 year son to 15 locations during a summer vacation, the burden we sense would be magnified. I have always felt a Christian “world suffering information distribution hub” is needed, some style or strategy to increase the awareness of all of us rich and blessed Americans, to make the suffering more real to us, because I am certain it is possibly God’s #1 anguish with man today. James 1: “Religionthat God our Father accepts as pure and faultness is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polutting by the world”. Wow, what a verse.
5) I emphatically agree. If we don’t like something about our local “Body of Christ”, then we should consider that just in that awareness, God may be calling us to be part of the solution, or He may being as you say, just calling us to “move on” or said another way, He may be teaching us to stay focused on the majors of Love, Grace, Forgiveness and Christ crucified.
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1) Granted. What are you doing besides telling other people to do it?
2) Granted. Faith without works is dead. Who cares what Atheists think?
3) I don’t live in Christendom. I live in Los Angeles. And everything that you are writing is a theological discussion.
4) Right. The uneven emphasis enters when people use the fact that we can’t focus singularly on the unborn as an excuse to disregard them. The born can usually speak for themselves.
5) Well of course with love and respect. We do everything with love and respect. How much time does that take? I mean really the fundamental principles involved here are in practice the disestablishment of Christianity as true religion and the erasure of Christian theology as a meaningful exercise in the worship of the true God. That seems to require, if we are acting from the motives of love and respect, some kind of response on our part.
All the best,
Christopher
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Dear brothers and sisters
The conference topic is intriguing, but I sincerely pray that you will consider addressing crucial issues that appear to be largely ignored by the “non emergent church”, namely – an authentic Christian response to repression, torture, murder inflicted by various governments upon their people (e.g. Burma, Sudan).
This is important for several reasons –
1) First and foremost millions around the world are currently suffering horribly at the hands of their repressive governments. If Christians are silent or relatively quiet it sends a message to all non-christians that we are aloof to suffering, America centric, and generally uncaring. Such matters should be on the radar of Christians and not left to the state department or the U.N. Worldwide opinion can be shaped at a grass roots level & we should be agents & champions of positive change.
2) It is a great response to the atheists who question the integrity / value of Christian values.
3) It tangibly validates the message of Christ delivered by Christian evengelists and missionaries (and hopefully the rest of Christendom as well). Let’s face it, it is hard to come across as a faithful mesenger of a caring Saviour if we limit ourselves to theological discussions and pithy bible verses
while someones friends and family are dying in front of their eyes.
4) This is not to be confused with “works” or the “social gospel”, but rather a balanced perspective of Christain activism. It is good to care about the unborn – but we must also care about those who have been born
5) Please, Please consider not spending too much time slamming the “emergent church”. No, I don’t like their positions either – but let’s treat them with love and respect, point out the error of their ways and move on.
In Christ,
Steve Morris
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You gents can make it to Texarkana, Arkansas/Texas, right?
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