Fourth Sunday of Easter (Cycle A) "Good Shepherd Sunday"

-
The Good Shepherd Lectionary:  49 Reading 1 -  Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 23: 1-6 Reading 2 -  1 Peter 2:20b-25 Alleluia - John 10:14 Gospel -  John 10:1-10 I am the good shepherd, says the Lord! So we have reached the mid-point of the Easter Season and come to what is unofficially known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because every year at this time we read from John 10, the famous “Good Shepherd Discourse.” For the most part, the readings are focused around the idea of Jesus Christ as our divine Shepherd. But what is a shepherd like? Now, let’s be honest: most of us have never actually spent much time with a literal sheep. We tend to romanticize them as fluffy, docile creatures on greeting cards. Case in point, despite having midwestern farmers as parents, my experience with sheep is limited to petting zoos and the movie Babe … where except for a very talented pig, Shepherds often drive sheep in different directions using dogs to intimidate them...
Post a Comment

Review: The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message

-
The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message by Jonathan Paul Brenneman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Book: ***
Performance: ***

Solid Foundation; Very Repetitive

This was an interesting treatment of the concept of tithing and how this idea for the foundation of doctrine within the charismatic/pentecostal wing of the Christian churches. While it appears to me that most of the scriptural interpretations are supportable, the author is mostly targeting fellow pentecostals … a community that I am not personally a part of. As such, there is a tremendous amount of virtue signaling and argumentation along with anecdotal characterization of current doctrine that didn’t really do much for me (you might say these are distracting segues or “rabbit holes’). In addition, that are several references to people/figures that are apparently well known to this community for which I have not exposure … so that does not really add much to the debate for me either. However, references to scripture always seemed appropriate for the topic and his interpretation appeared to be reasonable given what I know of the context (again … I already subscribe to spirit-led giving over tithing, so I don’t need to be convinced here). Then we get to the author’s own experiences within his community and the harm done by the teaching of a tithing doctrine and without any means to refute those specific examples was truly dismayed by them … which I think was the point … but makes the whole come across a lot more angry that I was comfortable with … which again … given the inclusion of the concept of the Trojan Horse … is probably the point … but which meant that I simply tuned out portions of the audible that seems repetitive and targeted for emotional manipulation. Over all this was an average book, but it was well researched and important enough of a topic that I am adding 1 to my overall rating.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Ch. 1: Let’s Get Ready To Take On an Intense Topic! (36:34)
Ch. 2: My Tithe Story (41:36)
Ch. 3: Who’s Teaching Salvation by Tithing? (43:59)
Ch. 4: Subtle Deception Paves the Way for Blatant Error (39:02)
Ch. 5: Is the Tithe “Law?” (16:52)
Ch. 6: Dealing with bullying and teasing (60:43)
Ch. 7: The History of Tithing (41:33)
Ch. 8: You Break God’s Commandments for the Sake of Your Tithing Tradition (45:38)
Ch. 9. “But Tithing Works!” (31:33)
Ch. 10. Tithing Undermines Spirit-Led Giving (66:31)
Ch. 11. Spirit-Led Giving (34:00)
Ch. 12. Corrupted Wisdom and Jesus’ Temptation (34:00)
Ch. 13. What About Ministerial Support? (27:20)
Ch. 14. Good News for the Poor (22:52)
Ch. 15. When Not To Accept an Offering (17:54)
Ch. 16. Mothers Are Pleading for Someone To Tell Their Children the Truth (15:38)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheTrojanHorseOfTithing #FreeAudiobookCodes #KindleUnlimited

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dominican Inquirer

-
Image
  Technically speaking, this is really more of an independent, unstructured, investigation of a particular Lay Dominican Fraternity, where you can attend meetings as a guest with no particular commitment ... sort of a "try it before you buy it" approach to see if you and the fraternity members are even remotely compatible.  Given some of the conflict within the American Church today ... this might not be a given.  As might be expected, there can be strong personalities and intense beliefs about how to approach the faith within the fraternities that can reflect the same divisions that are seen in the Church at large.   However, there are also some additional questions to contemplate to see if you might be a fit for the Dominican Family in general.  Each of the Major Orders that have tertiaries (third orders) share their specific charisms (gifts) with their lay members, so in addition to a general desire for a deeper spiritual devotion to the faith, there are elem...
Read more

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector   Lectionary: 150 Reading 1 -  Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 [sic] Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23 Reading 2 -  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Alleluia -  2 Corinthians 5:19 Gospel -  Luke 18:9-14 '... for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. This story is closely connected to the one which comes just before it about the persistent widow who secures a just decision from a dishonest judge. While the first encourages us to pray and never give up. The second reminds us how, and in what manner, we ought to pray. However, to fully understand the example Jesus gives us, we should look more closely at first the century audience that He initially spoke to. A faithful Jew at that time would have assumed two things: That the Pharisee was a very holy and devout man.  And that...
Read more

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Lazarus and the Rich Man (Dives)   Lectionary: 138 Reading 1 -  Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 Reading 2 -  1 Timothy 6:11-16 Alleluia -  Cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9 Gospel -  Luke 16:19-31 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.' Justice, both socially and spiritually, is at the heart of today’s readings. Social Justice is about seeing the “unseen”… remembering the “forgotten” in our society. It’s about the men, women and children who only want a better life in a world that God has given to all of us, just not a select few. In our first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Amos, the prophet of social justice. God called him to speak to the rich of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The country was about to be destroyed by the Assyrians while the wealthy “lie on beds of ivory” and “drink wine from bowls,” confident that “the ruin of Joseph” ...
Read more

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Teach Us To Pray Lectionary: 111 Reading 1 -  Genesis 18:20-32 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8 Reading 2 -  Colossians 2:12-14 Alleluia -  Romans 8:15bc Gospel -  Luke 11:1-13 Today we’re celebrating the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time; and our readings for the Mass invite us to reflect deeply upon the power and nature of prayer. From Abraham's bold intercession on behalf of Sodom, to Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray, we are called to a renewed understanding of our relationship with God. But first we should probably talk about what is prayer … If we look up “prayer” in the English dictionary, we see prayer defined as: a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God .   It come to us from a French word that is based on the Latin precarius, which means ‘obtained by entreaty.’ For many of us, this is what first comes to mind when we pray … we are asking for something from God; after all, it was easy for the Israel...
Read more