The Heidelcast considers the case of Fiona, who was raised in a broadly evangelical congregation. In that tradition, the emphasis was on unity over diversity. The congregation tolerated different approaches to the sacraments and to the doctrine of salvation. What bound them together was shared devotion to the Bible as God’s Word and to a shared experience of the risen Christ. She met a boy and came to confessional Reformed convictions. She appreciated much about her newly adopted tradition but there was one aspect of Reformed Christianity that troubled her: criticism. Why must the Reformed always be so critical of others? She was certain that her Roman Catholic friends loved Jesus too. She was becoming increasingly irritated with disparaging references to “the evangelicals” and to well-known television preachers such as Joel Osteen. She wondered to herself, “Why can’t Reformed people be nicer?” Why not indeed? Here is episode 42:
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Nice! ):
I see the signs for “Saint-Nicéphore, Québec” when I travel to Québec City along the Trans-Canada. I wonder about the etymology of the name “Nicephorus”. Any relation to the Latin roots of “nice”?
http://bit.ly/1hcICxK
http://bit.ly/18BD6S8
http://bit.ly/1aBRR98 etc.
I don’t think so. I think it comes from the Greek “Nike” (Victory) and “Phero” (I carry).
Fiona should have known what was coming when she married the ogre known as Shrek.
But seriously, may I make a suggestion for a future post or Heidelcast? Since your dealing with niceness and things related to it, how about using words spanning from “stupid” to words commonly considered foul in our language when dealing with condemnable ideas or even people? I remember some Christians like Phil Johnson arguing with people who consider themselves Reformed over using certain foul words, with some “Reformed” guys arguing for the acceptability of the language and Phil arguing against it. I think some even said that Paul used a certain word equivalent to ours that begins with an “s” in one of his epistles.
Just a suggestion.
And I get the impression that Luther in his table talk used an equivalent word actually beginning with “s” but with more letters.
,
Clicked the link. It said “Video can’t be played because the file is corrupt”. Corruption? On Heidelblog??? To what extent has it infiltrated Westminster Theological Seminary? Coming from near the top, this must be a SERIOUS MATTER!
Unfortunately for Fiona and her friends, propositional truth is a non-essential.