PAGAN!!!!

No not us! Thanks to Chris Roseborough (pictured l-r: Glenn Leatherman, Odd Thomas, Chris, Stephen Macasill of biblicalthought and Fusion!:)) Lutheran extrordinaire at alittleleaven.com for this humorous piece. I have thumbed through the book. *sigh* Some books were not meant for human consumption. I might add, Barna's name is splashed all over the cover and he wrote a little bit of it. A bit misleading. (Wondering aside: who is he trying to impress or kiss up to? Someone like this? Gotta sell books to someone I guess)
Anywho here is Chris's piece. Enjoy.

Pagan Christianity (gasp)

We just finished reading a book written by George Barna entitled "Pagan Christianity". Aside from being one of the most poorly researched books we've run across, it's 'arguments' are probably some of the lamest that we've ever read (Barna and Viola literally cherry pick their evidence and ignore the large body of evidence that easily overturns their claims). The book basically argues that just about everything that we do in church is a form of paganism. Barna is not talking about things like praying to the saints. Instead he's literally arguing against anything that is 'institutional' including having a church building and a pastor who preaches sermons on Sunday. Many of Barna's arguments are just silly. The basic thesis is:

"The pagans did this type of stuff before Christians. Therefore, the church must have copied it from the pagans".

(See the list below of the pagan elements that are in church, according to Barna).


Well Mr. Barna, we have terrible news for you. We hate to be the ones having to break this to you. But, we have research that proves that pagans were writing books long before Christians were writing books. Therefore, it is clear that books are pagan. Therefore, Christians shouldn't be reading books, including (and especially) your books.
******************************************************
Hope you enjoyed that. Here is a very cool review of the book from Ben Witherington III.