The seminary that I got my masters degree from was an ELCA seminary. Even within the ELCA, some seminaries are known for being more liberal than others. Some are considered more conservative. There were definitely some people not very happy at the seminary I attended, and felt it was too liberal. In fact, one of the more popular professors left while I was there to transfer to a more conservative ELCA seminary.
I’m guessing you could take my seminary experience and find a parallel experience in any mainline Protestant or Roman Catholic seminary.
Maybe we arrange for the Duggers to take a vacation aboard the Scientology Cruise Ship - Free Winds - for the highest level of Auditing. It goes between Aruba and Curacao. Got to peak into their dining area while docked next to them. Seems they’re having a hard time filling the open slots. They could simply be reprogrammed. :))
Haha. Adults only? Cuz the Duggars could fill a lot of slots if you throw in Grandma, Amy, Anna and 3 kids, Derek and the baby, and Ben, plus whoever is born in the meantime.
Given the wide open and empty spaces on Free Winds I’d guess the Duggars could bring the entire extended family…plus some of the others families who attend an annual convention of like minded people.
Maybe Tom Cruise could host the sail away party - after all he had his BD party aboard the vessel.
I’d certainly buy the belief that Mama and Papa Duggar were put upon this earth by aliens…they’d probably overpopulated their home planet.
A friend went to St Olaf, until she decided to get the heck out of Minnesota.
My impression is Scandinavians/Lutherans, are fairly liberal, some might even say socialist!
^^ There are some that are pretty traditional, who have had major problems with the ELCA’s stance on allowing gays to become rostered ministers (in 2009). In response, hundreds of congregations left the ELCA (last I heard, it was over 700). So they’re not all liberal.
As a member of the often very liberal/open-minded Christian denomination as Zoos, I want to second how many mainstream Christian denominations have nothing to do with the fundie view of the world. Also, one of my favorite thinkers/speakers/givers is Jim Wallis, who is a liberal evangelical writer/theologian whom I have the utmost respect for. If something good comes out of this, I hope it’s the realization that Christian does not equal fundamentalist.
I read on a message board that someone had gone to one of the Duggar books signings several years ago wearing a shirt with several dinosaurs on the front. One of the boys said “Cool dragon shirt!”.
While I am well aware of the creation/evolution debate for fundamentalists, I had NO idea that while dinosaurs of course never existed (or all squeezed on the ark), dragons are apparently totally acceptable as actual historical animals.
Blew my mind.
I have friends who believe the earth is 6,000 years old. One believes the leviathan mentioned in the OT is actually a dinosaur. Not one can tell me what the carnivores actually ate while they were on the ark. They strictly take that section of this one begat that one in the old testament - added how much of each generation and bam…that is a LITERAL accounting of every single generation since Adam.
Fundamentalists tend to be the legalistic ones who take the bible literally. As in it literally took 6 days to create the world.
Evangelicals want to share the good news. In general their take is that God created the world.
Garden variety Christians believe there are parables and lessons and some history in there. They are willing to accept God is powerful enough to do whatever he wanted to create the world but it was more the idea that He created everything.
Uh-oh, that carnivore question is going to bug me. Like the chicken/egg or what’s beyond the universe.
I like the idea that religion can encourage us to do good around us. Of course, that can come from other inspirations. But when someone harms in the name of religion it’s not so, well, religious.
Well, there were all those people washing by…I guess you could snag a few for the carnivores. Actually, I find the herbivores equally troubling; can you imagine how many trees those giraffe would go through? Not to mention the hippos and rhinos.
