I’ve been trying to decide whether to start this info page out with a simple “get to know you” or some sort of sensationalized exclamation. But since I’d like you to come back, I guess I’ll just tell you what’s going on.I graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in youth ministry in 2004. In the spring of 2005 I was lucky enough to be married to someone who makes me better in every way. So I set out to carve my name in the big tree at the center of the playground. We moved to Tulsa and eventually started working at a local Lutheran church as the student minister.

What happened over the next 21 months was the first real test of faith that I’ve experienced. It wasn’t so much an outright attack on Christ, nor was it a crisis situation that drove me to question God. It was a series of gentle subversions. They started slowly, and at first didn’t seem all that important. But as they loomed larger, I needed an outlet.

So Power of Suggestion, originally known as P.O.S. 51, was born. The title is a reference to the substance sold by Elmo McElroy (Samuel L. Jackson) in the movie Formula 51.

ELMO: The drug’s a fake, you know. It’s bogus. It’s what we chemists call a placebo. It’s whatever you want it to be. You can run all the tests you want. It will look like the best [stuff] in the universe. But the ingredients…they cancel each other out.

LIZARD: Confusing the Lizard ain’t gonna help your cause.

ELMO: Got to give big ups to marketing. The ability to make people believe. The power of suggestion.

This is what I see in liberal/progressive/emergent theologians. They create this mashup of their favorite parts from Christianity and other religions, philosophy, social ethics, natural theology, and secular humanism and sell it as the “best stuff in the universe”.

But the truth is, the ingredients cancel each other out.

I hope you’ll look around the site and see for yourself just how thin some of their positions are. Of course, don’t just take my word for it, investigate for yourself. I don’t think you should accept any thought or theology uncritically, so read, research, and let me know what you think. I’m interested in hearing it.

There’s no reason we can’t discuss issues so close to our hearts and be civil about it. Of course, we often fail, no matter how hard we try, and you’ll see evidence of my own failures in keeping my cool in some of the comments on this site. I could pull them all down (and I have taken some), but I’m leaving them up in order to be as honest as possible about the passion and struggle involved in talking about God.

Fall ‘08: It’s election season, so this place will be popping with as much political commentary as theological.  If it’s wearing on you, check back in February.  I should be back to thoroughly ignoring political stories by then.

Look around and let me know what you think.

Charles

Other Pages:

The Way of the Blog, On the Narrow, On the Narrow (Pt. 2)

Technorati Tags: Whatever