Comments on: Sensitivity Run Amok

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 17:30:04 +0000

Bill, I don't think it's wrong for you to be upset about this. I think, as a culture, we're going to have to challenge people both to stop being offended by everything and also to not cater to those who are overly sensitive. Our culture needs to grow up or truth is in trouble.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 03:46:31 +0000

I don't mean my statements to discredit your friends class. I was just sharing my reaction.
I find myself doing some of both comforting and conflicting in my preaching – as well as delving into the stories of our interaction with God. I am though a pastor in a mainline denominational church.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 12:24:43 +0000

Mainline Protestants used to like this phrase: preaching should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Another concept in mainline Protestant churches that used to have currency: the Church has both a priestly and a prophetic voice.
Part of the achievement of mainline Protestant churches in the last century was pushing social justice through their prophetic preaching that made comfortable people uncomfortable.
This preaching class sounds like the obverse. Priestly voice only, and really a treacly, sentimental version of “priestly” and no discomforting the comfortable.
Why not say, “Bring your idol– no bring your whole pantheon– into class and we will offer sacrifices to the whole pantheon.”
I can't tell from your post, Face, if prestige is an important factor in your friend attending the seminary in question. If it is, I imagine Tyler Durden looking at her and saying, “How's that working out for you?”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 18:29:41 +0000

It's difficult for me to imagine those kind of restrictions in my preaching classes. We did have to preach to the group, but that did not mean changing our exegesis to suit them. It meant finding a way to present the content of our study to the group we were preaching to. Hermeneutics should change our delivery, not the truth we bear. We may take particular points out of the text that deal with a specific situation we are addressing with the group, or are particularly relevant to the lives of the people present, but the concept of changing the theology of our sermon to suit the congregation is bizarre. This appears to be a whole different ethic of preaching than I was exposed to.
Just wanted to rant, that probably isn't of much import to y'all.