Editor:
I’m a Christian who attends a local church and I have never attended the Catalyst Church (“Beer Me, Jesus,” Aug. 19). I realize your article was written by Deric Mendes, a self-described atheist and that newspapers articles can, without meaning to, misquote or distort.
Dan Davis, being one of four co-pastors of the committee-run church, states that his views are not the overriding views of the church. Davis derives his worldview from Aristotle’s philosophy of logic, compassion and ethics, something he feels Christianity best represents. He then states, “I’m an agnostic every other day.” As for the Bible, “I don’t hold to inerrancy in the text. It’s not meant to be taken literally.” The article states that Davis, and much of the Catalyst congregation, approach Christianity as post-structuralist philosophers, deconstructing the Bible as a work of literature rather than an absolute truth.
Davis struggles to find his place in social justice work. Catalyst wants to address issues such as poverty and the environment. Regarding Jesus, the article asked the question: is invoking Jesus metaphorically better for social justice than a literal invocation? Is it even necessary for the cause, or for Catalyst, to invoke Jesus at all?
To Dan Davis: If the Bible is not the inerrant word of God, if there is no absolute truth, if the finished work of Jesus on the cross through his death, burial, and resurrection is not necessary, then what do you believe?
The Christian Church is to meet spiritual and physical needs of people. Sometimes the Church fails in the area of meeting physical needs. However, the main ministry of the Christian Church is to point people to Jesus.
To the Catalyst Church: If you are a social services group, I say, “Great, we need more people in our community caring about others.” However, if you indeed call yourselves a Christian Church, are you pointing people to Jesus?
Debra Woodman, McKinleyville
This article appears in Hooked.
Comments like this only bolster my conviction that there is no joy in sects.
Can’t trust those darn atheists. Since they don’t believe in a heavenly dictator, they’re obviously prone to distort reality. Christians like Debra Woodman should be aware, according to several sources (Mesa magazine 2002, the journal “Nature” 1998, the Fellows of British Royal Society study on religiosity, and the 2007 pew forum study quoted in the article — to name a few) the more educated one is, the less likely he or she is to believe in God.
In America, less than 7 per cent of PHD holding scientists and 35 per cent of none-science based PHD grads believe in God. That means our educators, medical doctors, scientists, and other academically inclined individuals are not to be trusted! If they don’t fear hell, they’re more likely to distort facts and act without integrity. Right?
The presumption that atheists are less moral than the religious is preposterous. Whenever I see or hear such nonsense as the first sentence of Debra’s comment, I’m reminded that the religious are often unaware of how rude their statements can be.
Local fundamentalists must be exhausted from wagging their fingers at Catalyst.
No Joel, they never get tired! Catalyst just ran through a gauntlet of razor blades and they haven’t even realized they’re bleeding yet They’re delusional to think they can “make things right” with the Christian community by back peddling. Sadly their own institution has let them down. I’m afraid they are left with the “Beer Me Jesus” label for years to come…
Well said Debra. Some good questions for Catalyst indeed. May they recognize the love in which this was written.
Deric, there is more to the statistics than you are considering. Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. This is because in our pride, we accumulate stuff and want to take it with us, we exalt ourselves over each other with titles. It isn’t education that makes a person more likely to disavow God, it is the pride that goes with it. Paul writes about this in his letter to the Phillipians,
“If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Paul has all these titles, from a respected family tree, highest education, greatest record, blameless in the law, yet he counts it all rubbish. Why? Because those prideful things keep us from communion with reality. We get so caught up, puffed up, taking ourselves so seriously that we miss the point of it all. Humility is communion with the infinite.