Years ago, friends and I experimented with designing listening groups. These small groups with three or four participants met once a month for seven months.Basically, we listened to one another for two hours. After a time of centering prayer where we became stilled and focused, the first person would begin and share where he or she was in life. When the first person was done, we would go back into silence, and the only way we could respond to the one who had spoken after those short moments of quiet was to ask questions. This pattern continued until we had gone around the group.Over seven years, I led some 250 people in listening groups and was amazed by the remarkable growth I saw in many of the attendees. I also was transformed in unexpected ways; I certainly became convinced of the healing power that exists when humans feel heard and understoodWe always take the first session of a listening group to get to know one another a little so that we are not complete strangers. One woman sitting in my living room started her story with these words: “I guess you could say that I was raised by parents who were Evangelical atheists…”Whoa, I thought. Now that’s strong! Evangelical atheism?The woman explained that her parents adhered to conservative Christianity but that their lives were a dysfunctional antithesis to what Scripture explains are the fruits of belief. Over the next month, I kept mulling over this apparent oxymoron: Evangelical atheism. Evangelical atheism.read more: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gospelforasia/2019/03/evangelical-atheism/
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
This article is really scattered and doesn’t really deal with ‘evangelical atheism’ at all. A very large portion is just dedicated to promoting the IJL and GFA. Financial support of these organizations does not nessicarily equate to authentic Christianity. Karen talks about the temptation to use worldly means to conduct the enormous multitude of “Christian” activities she and her husband organize but not about how they withstood the temptation. I am not writing her off on this but I feel like I can’t take this article seriously as a result. I’ll try to reread it and see if there is a root of substance in there somewhere.
Karen writes of what they'd term 'evangelical atheism'. Not much 'root of substance' to it. Stephen Charnock many years ago wrote of what he termed 'practical atheism'. I don't think there's a better discourse on the subject than his. See if you think that the 'root of substance' to Charnock's discourse goes deep deep down. Here it is;https://www.monergism.com/discourse-practical-atheism
Thanks Savannah for bringing in Charnock. You can tell a God anointed writer when what he said in the 1600's is every bit applicable to your life almost 400 years later.
_________________Marvin