Pastor Dave Schmelzer's Blog: "Not the Religious Type"

Pastor Dave Schmelzer wrote a book called Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist. He and I will be interviewed together on a very popular and respectable Christian program called The Things That Matter Most (publication date March 1st). Dave's blog has the same title as his book: Not the Religious Type. What could that mean?

5 comments:

Adrian said...

He has a longish description of his type of faith (no surprise, it's the most advanced, superior kind of faith) which he calls "type 4".

I'm thinking that the interviewer will be relying on you to say something interesting & controversial. Strong opinions don't sound compatible with Type 4 faith :)

Jon said...

Watch out for Lael Arrington. She's got this very sweet voice, but the claws come out when needed. In her case it's very much canned apologetic boilerplate, whereas her co-host Rick Davis genuinely sounds like he's trying to understand things from your perspective.

The Sam Harris interview is a perfect example. You really want to listen to this to understand the traps that might be sprung on you, John. Watch Lael pose a question, then after Sam answers she tries to steal the last word and then mute his attempt to reply. Watch her play games with word definitions in an attempt to maneuver Sam into a corner and get pushy when she can't push him where she wants him. Sam handles it absolutely brilliantly. I didn't realize how excellent he was until I heard this interview.

Freethinker said...

Sounds like the "Christianity isn't a religion it's a relationship" nonsense. Check out the editorial review on the amazon page on how his "turncoat" status is misleading.

goprairie said...

did you READ his description of what his 'stage 4' is, john? what lovely arrogance! he has defined a system where traditonal relgious are children, stage 2, and atheists are rebellious teenagers, stage 3, and of course, his kind, the fully mature kind, stage 4, have found all the answers. but what stage 4 is, his mysticism and spirituality, is really just god of the gaps - oooh, wooo, we can't see it but it is there in hidden reaches, the things we don't know about or are not capable of knowing about. grrrr. i think if atheists as the mature ones who can live fully without a god and his kind as the ones who have to make up some refuge for a god when all the stuff they have been taught has been disproved - good luck debatiing this whacko - he will be all over the board with his vague loose definitons - can't pin down air . ..

DrMark said...

As a Christian, I must agree with the fact that it looks arrogant and confused (but I do not want to judge his heart and arrogance is a state of the heart to the Christian). By his definition of Stage 2, most atheists I know and have blogged with are law-abiding church-going people because most atheists I know and blog with believe in the law, which he says is Stage 2. This seems confusing and presumptuous against 2000 years of developed doctrinal definition.
I think he could have saved a lot of time by reading a couple of chapters out of Galatians, which better summarize the law:"Stage 4" thing.