The Christian Vanguard

I came across this quotation from Alexander Campbell, founder of the Church of Christ, from which the ICOC springs. It reads,  "I have endeavored to read the Scriptures as though no one had read them before me, and I am as much on my guard against reading them today, through the medium of my own views yesterday, or a week ago, as I am against being influenced by any foreign name, authority, or system whatever."  This is interesting because there seems to be a trend within the Evangelical world to disassociate with their historical roots. I know many Protestant Evangelicals, including the ICOC, who are squeamish when I call them "Protestants." 'We're not Protestants,' they'll object, 'We're just Christians.' This is to be completely ignorant of history. While I consider "Protestant" to be something of a bad word, I don't understand why it would be to a Protestant. I can use it in a value-neutral way, and it can easily i...

It has been a while since I posted my reply to Douglas Jacoby's short outline on contraception. I shortly received feedback, which I did request, but elsewhere, and not directly here, though I would appreciate it if it were posted on my blog. I didn't immediately respond, since I was busy with other things, like getting a girlfriend. A much wiser use of my time I think. Anyways, I'm finally getting around to responding to what the members of the ICOC have said in response to my response . 

A friend from the ICOC has forwarded this link from one of his (very few) teachers. I haven't talked about the issue much, so I suppose this will be a good brushing up. Douglas Jacoby thinks it is permissible to use contraception. Let me begin by saying that I haven't listened to the podcast, but I read through his notes (it's faster to read than to listen). I will assume there isn't much left out, or at least, nothing important left out, so my response should suffice.  So, the relevant portion of scripture here is Genesis 38. Jacoby claims that the reason that God killed Onan was because of his failure to fulfill his duty. I have written about this particular interpretation , so I will just copy the relevant portion. 

I met this guy, let's call him Tom, at an engagement party, and he is a member of the ICOC, which I used to be a member of. We had a discussion about Original Sin (which they deny) and Infant Baptism (they're Anabaptists) and he sent me some Bible verses which he believed denied Original Sin, and I said I would think about it and get back to him. Of course, I've heard it all before, being a former member of the ICOC, but I was just being polite since I didn't want to get into the nitty gritty there at a mutual friends party. He has stopped responding to me, and it's been a while now, so I'm sharing our exchange here. Some arguments I was toying and experimenting with here with, so a ny feed back is appreciated. His emails are in Blue , while mine are in Red . 

A while ago, I had a conversation with a guy. We both commented on a mutual friends Facebook post, and this friend was from the ICOC. I initiated conversation with him because his profile picture looked like something you would see an Orthodox person put up, and people from the ICOC tend to be isolated from that kind of stuff, so I was intrigued. The man's name is Joey Harris, and I have his permission to make this public. I have cleaned up some of the grammar and spelling errors, but the substance is faithful to the original. I've decided to put this up for a few reasons. One, it's probably the best attempt by a member of the ICOC to stop me from being Catholic. Or at least, it's the more informed attempt. Two, there's a certain intellectual humility in the conversation, which I think other members of the ICOC should follow. I've talked to many of my friends from this group, and they simply don't know how to approach me about this, and I briefly give a...