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What Do I Want for Christmas This Year?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
It’s a question we get asked a lot, and it’s a question that gets harder to answer as I get older. I have an Amazon wishlist, of course. But, really, I do know what would make me feel like it was a really good Christmas. I know exactly what I want. I’m afraid it’s a long list. Here’s what I want: I want for…

Jesus Is Not Part of the Christmas Story

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday before the Nativity, December 18, 2016 Hebrews 11:9-10, 32-40; Matthew 1:1-15 V. Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. We are now one week away from celebrating a great mystery of the Christian faith—the birth of the God-man Jesus Christ into this world. Yet as we approach…

An Opportunity of Revelation

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
One of the issues that occupies my thoughts frequently is how we know what we know, especially how we apprehend the revelation of God. I do not think it is something that can be laid out in mechanically reproducible ways, but I do believe that there are many ways of speaking of it that are all true in different ways. And I find that…

Is It Wrong to Learn About Other Religions?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
In response to my recent posts (here and here) where I talk about the research I’ve begun into Mormonism, I’ve gotten several comments urging me to reconsider, not to learn about Mormonism. Most comments have gone the other way, encouraging me to keep going and to write on this subject. But several have come from folks concerned that either I will be led astray…

This Thing Decreased My Stress as a Pastor

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
This week an article about pastors quitting ministry and even Christianity itself circulated among some of the clergy I know. I see articles like this all the time. Among this one’s ominous passages is this one: [ExPastors.com] conducted a 2015 survey that found 60 percent of pastors consider themselves overworked and 81 percent feel unable to meet the demands of their jobs, Atkinson said…

The One Thing Every Christian Must Know

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Being a believing Christian is not a moment to moment existential crisis of wondering whether everything we think we believe is really true. Just like most things in life, we spend most of our time functioning as though what we believe is true and proceeding from there. But we still have every right to ask whether it is indeed all true. And we also…

Stop Using “Religion” to Mean Bad Religion

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Risen from the ashes of his Mars Hill Church career and now nesting in greater Phoenix, “Young, Restless and Reformed” pastor and author Mark Driscoll tweeted the following this past weekend: Religion is rules without relationships. #PrayLikeJesus — Pastor Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) December 10, 2016 This idea that religion is about “rules” is not unique to Driscoll, of course, nor to his followers, who…