John 17:14-19 (>>)

Relevant Magazine has a pretty good article in their newsletter about being in the world, but not of it (seems to be a common theme developing around here…). It’s not on their website, so I’ve created a mirror here.

“Categories evolve into identifying more than activities and soon bleed into categorizing people. Now the Christian is limited not only by activities but also environment, campuses, government, stores and even church. The separatist cannot sanctify culture and so they retreat. They think, ‘Sure it is a depressing life, but we have to suffer for Christ right? This is what persecution is all about.’ They create a subculture filled with Christian books, Christian music, Christian clothes and Christian stores.”

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“The Bible seems a little bit too intolerant. Conformists prefer supplemental reading from other walks of spiritualism, in order to relate with their world. They bash the Bride of Christ (the Church) in coffee shop talks with other conformists. In fact, the conformist that can throw the best punch at those separatists often gets the best applause from his or her fellow conformists.”