Episode 22: The Character of Christ

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"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. " - Jesus, Luke 14:26,27

Special Guest: Brian Worley

Danny is flying solo for this episode. Featuring a short and sweet interview with the creator of exminister.org, we discuss the different "Jesuses" presented to us in the bible. Also features a reading of my critical review of Jonathan Wells' "Icons of Evolution". Finally a good long angry rant about an encounter with a self-proclaimed prophet. Enjoy! Send feedback to reasondriven@gmail.com

"John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.' But Jesus said, 'Do not hinder him; for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name, and be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is for us." Mark 9:38-40 (NASB)

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters." Luke 11:23 (NASB)

"I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." Revalation 3:15 -16 (RSV)

My blog: The World Through Schade-Colored Shades

6 comments:

The Raging Paradoxidation said...

Wow Danny, I feel for your experience that you ranted about with regards to the fate of your marriage. The sad thing is that when I was a Christian I probably would have told someone else the same stuff that you were told. Thankfully I am free from that now but it's unfortunate that it still happens to people.

I honestly believe that some people have almost an addiction psychologically to religion. There is something about the "possession" of truth that gives them a high that can eventually lead them to do irrational things.

I started my de-conversion process around July of '06. I finally decided to come totally clean on my blog about my skepticism in January of '07. My wife is still a Christian though so it creates a lot of interesting tension between us. I don't believe that we will ever get divorced though because we've chosen to love each other and honour our commitment to each other.

I am unique in that even though I have given up on Christianity I still believe that there's something out there....but chances are it's way beyond us and probably too disconnected from us to ever be able to quantify. But with that in mind I too often am irritated by such "guardians of truth" like your friend. I still attend church and small group studies with my wife...but I felt like I was going to lose my lunch during our last meeting and am not sure how much more I can bear. I tend to be a pretty tolerant guy but we've got someone in our group who knows no wrong and the only thing that's been holding me back from laying on the skepticism with him is that I don't want to disrupt the group, of which I am the minority. I need to either come out of the closet and be honest with everyone there or just stop going.

At any rate, I enjoy the podcast and could relate to your story in this one and just wanted to share some admiration of your willingness to call someone on the carpet. It probably didn't do any good but at least you tried.

Jean-Michel Abrassart said...

Hello Danny,

You sounded very upset in this episode, after this phone call. I understand why.

My advice is: just relax. It isn't worth it.

See you,

Unknown said...

I'll try to remain eloquent when I comment on Ruttinger or whatever his name is: what a douche bag.

Your listeners still care about you, Danny.

Anonymous said...

Is Rudiger's real name Bart??? :-D

The Super Sweet Atheist said...

I felt your pain too, Danny. Had a cousin try to witness to me as my Dad was painfully dying of lung cancer. She thought God brought all the events together just so I could get saved by her. It was several years ago and I can still get worked up about it.

Simply put, it's arrogant and rude.

Your rant was beautiful and brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

Danny Schade said...

Thanks for the support, everyone. This encounter was really my first direct confrontation between me and a believer. It was a bit of a reality check. Oh well, right?