{"id":637,"date":"2013-08-13T07:20:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T13:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=637"},"modified":"2013-08-13T07:20:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T13:20:34","slug":"a-personal-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/a-personal-relationship-637.htm","title":{"rendered":"A Personal Relationship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am reading James Wellman\u2019s Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest<\/em>. It raises several questions which have puzzled me over the years, about both liberal and conservative Protestants. I have honest questions for both, if anyone is out there. <\/span><\/p>\n

What do evangelicals mean by \u201ca personal relationship with Jesus\u201d? <\/span><\/p>\n

Wellman interviewed one woman in an evangelical church. she said <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I grew up in a very devout Catholic home. We were in church whenever we were supposed to be and practiced the sacraments and religious holidays. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She dated an evangelical Methodist and her experience in his church raised several questions: <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

he would direct me to the Bible, which I had never actually opened at that point<\/p>\n

I realized what the truth was and that I needed a relationship with Jesus as opposed to pursuing a religion.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I can believe that she had never opened the Bible. Catholics of all stripes are remarkably ignorant of even the New Testament. I read the Bible cover to cover when I was 12 or 13; it was a quasi-miracle for a Catholic boy to do this. <\/span><\/p>\n

But no relationship to Jesus? <\/span><\/p>\n

I was born in 1946 and grew up in the pre-Vatican II church, which was if anything sentimental. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus emphasized his sympathy with our troubles. The Stations of the Cross asked us t sympathize with is physical and emotional pains. We were taught to speak to him intimately at Communion. This produced in many people a highly affective, if not downright sentimental, relationship with Jesus. <\/span><\/p>\n

How does this differ from \u201ca personal relationship\u201d? Or did the Catholic practices not work for some people? <\/span><\/p>\n

This is an honest, not an accusatory, question. Can anyone help me understand?<\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am reading James Wellman\u2019s Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest. It raises several questions which have puzzled me over the years, about both liberal and conservative Protestants. I have honest questions for both, if anyone is out there. What do evangelicals mean by \u201ca personal relationship with Jesus\u201d? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[508],"tags":[673,747],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-protestantism","tag-evangelicalism","tag-personal-relationship-with-jesus","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}