10. Allowing radio evangelists on the air without conducting heresy inquisitions.
9. Allowing television evangelists on the air without regulating their hair stylists.
8. Allowing society to leap ahead of the church by requiring proficiency examinations for doctors and lawyers but not requiring competency testing for the salaried clergy.
7. Abolishing the requirement that women wear hats and gloves to church, because it led to today’s preferences for shorts, jeans and t-shirts among everyone at every event in our lives.
6. Attacking long hair on men while posting pictures of Jesus with hair longer than any rock stars’.
5. The church continues to use pews instead of Lazy Boy rocking recliners with built in cupholders.
4. The church has not figured out that coffee and sodas maintain mental alertness better than communion crackers and grape juice.
3. The church has become more like a resthome for believers instead of a hospital for sinners.
2. Funding evangelism as an equal priority with the lawn care budget.
1. Encouraging people to come as they are but allowing them to leave the same way.

Michael Spencer at Internetmonk has written another piece on Joel Osteen. See “Osteen Redux.” Spencer concludes his piece by summarizing his criticisms of Osteen:

“1) As presented in his books and messages, Joel Osteen isn’t an evangelical. He’s a motivational speaker.
“2) No matter what his personal or occasional doctrinal statements, Osteen’s books and sermons are absent the Gospel message.
“3) The vast majority of Osteen’s message is simply advice for being a better person- the antithesis of the cross and the Gospel.
“4) The MSMs attention to Osteen as a successor to Billy Graham should be loudly opposed by every pastor, preacher, teacher, leader and blogger in evangelicalism.
“5) The promotion of Osteen by publishing interests is an outright detriment to the cause of Christ in the name of making money.”

Spencer’s original post on Osteen has drawn thousands of readers and was cited recently in a Time magazine article. I have pointed to that post before, and here it is again: “Outing Joel Osteen” (Jan. 29, 2005).

“The monologue of the Religious Right is over and a new conversation has begun!” That’s the catch phrase of God’s Politics, a blog launched last week by Jim Wallis, author of the best-selling book of the same name and president of Sojourners. Co-authors of the blog include Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, and Brian McLaren. In its first week, God’s Politics has featured a four-part discussion between Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed.

Only 40 percent of Americans believe in evolution, according to a new study (Hat tip: Smart Christian).

University of Michigan prof Jon Miller, who led the study, attributed America’s skepticism regarding evolution to poor training in biology and a literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians.

I would suggest some other reasons for Prof. Miller to consider:

• We Americans think independently and question everything. Until you can prove it to us — and there remains no proof of evolution — we aren’t convinced.

• Yes, many of us accept the Bible literally, and your own study demonstrates that we are not such a “small group.”

10. Christians miss their true calling by thinking of $10 as an offering and a tithe as something only the Jews did.
9. Christians miss their true calling by spending more time with greater regularity changing the oil in their cars than praying.
8. Christians miss their true calling by thinking winning a million dollars in the Oklahoma lottery is more likely than God granting them the desires of their hearts. Psalm 37:4.
7. Christians miss their true calling by picking their own spouse, picking their own house, picking their own school, and picking their own job and then wondering how Satan and the world got to pick all of their problems.
6. Christians miss their true calling by thinking they were called to sit in a pew rather than stand in the breach.
5. Christians miss their true calling by attending church rather than being the church.
4. Christians miss their true calling by being more passionate about spectator sports than God’s game of life.
3. Christians miss their true calling by being able to tell a hundred jokes but not one parable.
2. Christians miss their true calling by knowing more about the rise in the stock market than the rise of the anti-Christ.
1. Christians miss their true calling by relegating demons, Prophecy and the Second Coming to the next installment of Ghost Busters.

*When this list was originally issued in 2001 in another medium, one or more of the points might have been authored by others or swimming unattributed in the internet.*