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	<title>Theological Oddments</title>
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	<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments</link>
	<description>on theology, Bible, and church</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 16:47:13 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Not the End of the World</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2011/05/its-not-the-end-of-the-world/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2011/05/its-not-the-end-of-the-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 May 2011 17:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Bible]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[end of the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gospel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rapture]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=249</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It's too easy, though, to get caught up on the date fixing and the ridiculousness of claims of rapture and earthquakes happening in each time zone and obeying the international date line. It's all easy to ridicule, but it misses something actually worth noting. Perhaps it is the only thing really worth noting here. Harold Camping and others present a view of God devoid of love and a message devoid of the gospel.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Good Friday Bidding Prayer</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2011/04/good-friday-bidding-prayer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2011/04/good-friday-bidding-prayer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2011 18:43:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liturgy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=241</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Good Friday service at my church was good and well done. But I have to say that the Bidding Prayer is sticking in my craw. The Bidding Prayer is a traditional part of the Good Friday liturgy. It consists of a serious of calls to prayer, a short silences, and prayers by the leader [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Structural Engineering the ELCA</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/10/structural-engineering-the-elca/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/10/structural-engineering-the-elca/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[budgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[church body]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[church in society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lutheran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lutheranism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ministry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[priorities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restructuring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[structure]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=230</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The ELCA, facing budget shortfalls, is forced to restructure it's churchwide organization.  But the restructuring is flawed with misplaced priorities and a failure to address the real structural problem it faces.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/10/structural-engineering-the-elca/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Prayer</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/07/prayer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/07/prayer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:13:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Theology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[practice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prayer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=218</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The lectionary lessons for this Sunday (July 25, 2010) center around the theme of prayer. We have Abraham&#8217;s entreaties to God for the sake of a few righteous people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from Genesis 18. In the reading from Colossians 2, starts out by holding up a life rooted in Christ [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Proper Place of the Law: What of Antinomianism?</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/03/proper-place-of-the-law/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/03/proper-place-of-the-law/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:34:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Theology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[antinomianism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ed Schroeder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gospel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law reductionism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lutheranism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robert Benne]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uses of the law]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=178</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the debates over human sexuality and the related discussions, the charge is frequently made by conservatives and traditionalists that the ELCA has drifted into antinomianism (rejecting the law). That charge has been unsurprisingly leveled once again by Robert Benne in the winter 2009 edition of Lutheran Forum in an essay titled &#8220;The Hazards of [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Reconfiguration of Lutheranism. Really?</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/reconfiguration-really/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/reconfiguration-really/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:05:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[church body]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lutheran CORE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lutheranism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[structure]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today the conservative, traditionalist, and dissident group Lutheran CORE released it&#8217;s vision for what the group&#8217;s press release called &#8220;the reconfiguration of Lutheranism in North America.&#8221;  It calls for the establishment of a new church body with the suggested name of the North American Lutheran Church. The description of this vision can be found here: [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Holy Places</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/holy-places/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/holy-places/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liturgy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buildings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[holy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sacrament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sacred]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[space]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[worship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday&#8217;s post responded to certain streams of thought in the church about it&#8217;s future and the needs for reform and change in our life together. As a starting point, it used Walter Russell Mead&#8217;s blog entry called The Holy Crap Must Go. In that essay, Mead says that the church is unnecessarily burdened by maintaining [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Identity Crisis, Not Structural Crisis</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/identity-crisis/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/identity-crisis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[denominations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ministry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seminaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[structures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=137</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of friends pointed out an interesting blog entry by Walter Russell Mead (son of Loren Mead) titled The Holy Crap Must Go. Mead notes the troubled finances and struggles for existence of many congregations, church bodies, and seminaries. Seminaries have been closing. Regional and national church budgets have been shrinking or strained. Many [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/02/identity-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The ELCA&#8217;s Late Entry on Ugandan Anti-gay Law</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/01/late-entry/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/01/late-entry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:46:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bishop Hanson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human sexuality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By now you may have heard something about the anti-gay bill that&#8217;s been introduced into the parliament of Uganda. It offers severe penalties for the offense of &#8220;homosexuality,&#8221; up to and including death. For background on the bill, you might look here and here, and extensive coverage of the bill and surrounding issues can be [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2010/01/late-entry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Setting Aside Good Order in the ELCA?</title>
		<link>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2009/11/setting-aside-good-order-in-the-elca/</link>
		<comments>http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/2009/11/setting-aside-good-order-in-the-elca/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Christianson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clergy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ministry policies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Northeastern Iowa Synod]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.restenergy.net/oddments/?p=93</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Life in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) these days is anything put peaceful and easy. Since the Churchwide Assembly in August passed a social statement on human sexuality (here, PDF) and resolutions to allow gay and lesbian individuals who are committed and monogamous same-sex relationships to serve as pastors of the church (here, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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