Intertwined. Bodies against the altar. Lips on her neck. Innocent eyes angled upwards, focused on the stained glass portrait of Jesus. He was watching her commit a sin, a deadly sin of lust. A prickling feeling rose in Faith’s stomach – this is so wrong – but the feeling of her lover’s lips seemed to make it feel so right.
The man lifted his gaze to hers; those brown, stormy eyes belonged to a man who had always told her right from wrong, and always spoke the words of God.
“My dear,” Father Cain’s voice was soft, calming, but he spoke quickly, “shall we leave now?” He was smiling with a lopsided grin, one cheek higher than the other. There was a knowing look in his eyes, dark, brooding, and cunning. Faith felt her face begin to burn, and
…show more content…
“A way with words?” He asked, dazed.
“You see the words in the Bible as they were written. You understand the true meaning of the Scriptures and the morals they teach us. With the Bible behind you, you could ask anything of these people and they’d listen.”
Father Cain squinted at the man in front of him, and gave him a hearty handshake. “Thank you. That… means a lot to me.”
*
The following week, the girl dropped another twenty-dollar note into the collection basket.
As the basket made its way back to Father Cain, he noticed the amount of money in the woven container. There was spare change, as always, but also notes – at least five hundred dollars’ worth this time. His mind began to wander, to all the amazing things he could do if all the money was his – amazing luxuries, expensive technology, or a ticket to a place far away. The thought was tempting.
Father Cain’s eyes flickered to the portrait of Jesus, and then back to the money. He arched his neck to view his parish, and his eyes landed on the girl and her father – “With the Bible behind you, you could ask anything of these people and they’d listen.”
His blood started pumping faster as a thought crossed his mind – I could take the money for myself, just this time. Ask them to give more money, and that can be donated to charity. It’s not a sin, it’s not greed, and it’s not bad at all.
Without hesitating, he turned to face the people, back straight, chin to the sky.
“I am disappointed. What ever happened to
In the Beginning: At the beginning of the universe. God created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. During those six days God spoke to the darkness and created the world, brought forth light, created the sky, land and animals and plants to inhabit them. However, even during this creation he was contemplating the creation of a being made in his own image.
As we look back on history we can see that human beings have made great strides as well as suffered many setbacks in our development of fundamental doctrines and/or beliefs by which we live and view the world. These foundational beliefs have provided the framework for which all civilizations preserve, cooperate, and govern their way of life. Certainly throughout history, the spread of Christian theology and doctrine has been influential in establishing and developing a deeply rooted theistic and biblical worldview foundation; thus being the center of much debate. In light of the various views within Christian theology, we will focus specifically on doctrine that is foundational to the Christian
From the time people are born to their last moments of childhood, they invest in an object of security, something to keep them safe, something to always be there. The true mark of adulthood comes from abandoning this security item to walk forward without any weight. Just like all people, Leah in Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” was no different. Leah spent her whole life clinging on to her father, Nathan, and as a result, she was blinded to what truly mattered to her. The loving presence of a family could not be seen behind his controlling ways. Her dependence on him kept herself from realizing whom she actually cared about. Moreover, the reliance on Nathan meant her actions were truly not her own. Rather
scholarship. I feel that chapter four is more important than chapter three because the topic is
The text reveals that Daddy Norton’s religious fanaticism dominates every aspect of his family’s lives. Nonetheless, his parenting methods are analogously guided by the same ideological standards. Bottoms et al. refers to the fact that the Bible actually encourages such violent, physically abusive parenting techniques as Daddy Norton’s in the verses: "He Religion and child abuse that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" and "Withhold no correction from the child: for if
Leah, the tomboy of the family, opposes her father's mission and finds out the true man he really is; this changes her opinion towards religion. Leah puts forth tremendous effort to be accepted by her father, however then realizes that her father is an "ugly man." She sees that her father's "blue eyes with their left sided squint..had a vacant look. His large reddish ears repelled me. My father was a simple, ugly man." When Leah was younger she practiced religion based on her father's perspective, however after making the realization of her father's true colors, she chooses to practice her religion. Leah follows the path of the
“Business ethics is the application of general ethical ideas to business behavior” (Lawrence & Weber, 2017, p. 94) and it’s through these ideas that good, bad, moral, and immoral decisions are made based on the foundation and framework of how we view life. For this reason, our moral compass when based on a biblical worldview should influence how we approach making decisions as it pertains to business ethics (Porter,2013).
Our relationships with other people give a strong sense of what our relationship with God is like. How we interact with people on a daily basis and the relationships that we build goes a long way in showing just how we feel about them. In Romans 1:10 we see that Paul wanted desperately to come to Rome to teach, to interact, to fellowship, and build relationships with the Christians that were there. Just as God wants a personal relationship with His creation we all feel a deep need for relationships with each other. It was not meant for man to go through life on his own without being able to interact with each other. We see the genuine love that Paul displayed toward the people and churches throughout his epistles and it should make us want to have an even stronger relationship with our Creator.
She aspires to be a perfect copy of her father, someone she has looked up to since she was little. It’s easy to see his influence on her through her narration and thoughts. Everything he says, she soaks in, like a sponge willing to accept an unlimited amount of water. When she says of Brother Fowles that “I heard them saying he was a New York Irish, which tells you a lot, as they are notorious for being papist Catholics” (38), her father’s effect on not only her personality but views towards people is evident. Because of his impact on her youth, she looks up to him with fierce intensity, even desiring “his wholehearted approval” (42). Underneath this adoration for her father, however, lies a distinct fear of disapproval, having never “contradicted [her] father on any subject, ever” (66). Here, it is apparent his authoritative influence on her, resulting in a deep-seated anxiety that Leah feels. Furthermore, with Leah’s initial love of her father, it is easier to see the contrast of what she feels towards her father as the book progresses, something that changes directly as a result of her time in the Congo. Her views towards religion are also an aspect that can demonstrate how she has been inclined to feel specific ways. Leah’s most important value in her religion is the sense of justice, something she believes that Christianity is about with every particle on her body. She considers “God’s scale to be vast
Bible as the Inspired Word of God The Bible is the work of various authors, who lived in different continents and wrote in different eras. Furthermore, much of the text does not claim to have been 'dictated' by God and is not always God speaking to people. In parts it consists of people speaking to God, as in the Psalms, and people speaking to people, as in the New Testament letters written by Paul. In light of this, some maintain that it is not possible to treat the Bible as a book of divine oracles, delivered once by God and recorded by its authors through divine inspiration, since biblical authors were products of their time and subsequently their understanding of divine truth was culturally
This paper will delve into a greater understanding of the following questions. What is the meaning of Worldview? What is meant by each of the four primary aspects of the Biblical worldview: creation, the fall, redemption and restoration? How does free enterprise comport with or reject creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration? How does socialism comport with or reject creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration? How does progressivism support or reject Biblical Worldview?
Vacation Bible school is ending at Morris Brown AME Church as the clock strikes 7:30 p.m. on June 17, 2015. Anxious to take their pick from hot dogs, chips, lemon cakes and sodas, children scurry to the fellowship hall.
The children as religious followers to Sarah are first clearly seen through the observation that “There is a certain uncanny and superhuman quality about such a purely original undertakings as their
Vivid images, from visions, to detailed explanation and accounts of places and events, to symbolic imagery used to explain parables, or teach and encourage the first century churches are driving forces within the Biblical text. Metaphorical language, by virtue of the fact that it preserves the literal meaning of the symbol, while intending an analogical secondary meaning, is able to communicate profound truths about reality, mainly by creating an alternative, symbolic way of seeing and understanding the world. (Liubinskas, Susann. 404) Throughout the New Testament of the Bible the most commonly used images are the: body of Christ, and vine imagery. These images work together to create a powerful example of the necessity for unity among individual believers, and that unity tying them Christ.
Genesis 1-3 offered the very first outline of societal norms and therein introduced interpretations of norms related to family, gender, and sex. In our now-progressive society, the constraints of indubitable religion are removed and the differing interpretations of gender, sex, and family within religion are freely debated. Since the text of creation is divine and human logic cannot fully interpret or understand God’s word, there are copious, varying interpretations of the text. An essential starting point for interpreting the Bible is the understanding that misinterpretations are bound to happen. The difference in time and context alone is causation, let alone the factors of translation and transcription. Susan T. Foh and Carol Meyers, both graduates of Wellesley College, have very differing strategies regarding how to interpret divine texts. Meyers, a professor at Duke, directed attention towards the context in which the text was written. Since our societies are constantly in flux, the context from when the text was written is often different from the context in which predominant and accepted interpretations were fabricated. Foh’s strategy of interpreting and understanding the text is to utilize latter parts of the text, which were written with more recent contexts, in order to understand the text. Both of these methodologies set up the text to be re-interpreted, however, Foh’s methodology is more complete because it allows the text to speak for itself rather than bring in