Thank you so much for this. I feel like I'm learning far more from you than I would ever learn from paying $40/disc or $25/month to get some guy's "masterclass." I would feel heavily uncomfortable about the concept of paying to enrich someone else's ministry if I had no idea going in of whether their Biblical understanding has any basis in morality or historical fact, especially since as demonstrated in your contrast of the sheep-anointing with the way this television show presents it, the same set of information can often lead to widely different interpretations.
If a "masterclass" is talking about a moral issue, I would want to know that my money isn't going to further someone's platform to demonize women or LGBTs or ethnic minorities, and if the class is talking about a factual issue, I would want to know that my money is going to credible studies that have been peer-reviewed.
In addition, I think too many Christian ministries de-emphasize and sometimes demonize the concept of peer review by people outside the "Christian community" altogether. For simplicity's sake I'm referring to it as one community even though we know there are many sub-communities who often have strong differences, sometimes going all the way up even to the question of the divinity of Jesus.
Thank you so much for this. I feel like I'm learning far more from you than I would ever learn from paying $40/disc or $25/month to get some guy's "masterclass." I would feel heavily uncomfortable about the concept of paying to enrich someone else's ministry if I had no idea going in of whether their Biblical understanding has any basis in morality or historical fact, especially since as demonstrated in your contrast of the sheep-anointing with the way this television show presents it, the same set of information can often lead to widely different interpretations.
If a "masterclass" is talking about a moral issue, I would want to know that my money isn't going to further someone's platform to demonize women or LGBTs or ethnic minorities, and if the class is talking about a factual issue, I would want to know that my money is going to credible studies that have been peer-reviewed.
In addition, I think too many Christian ministries de-emphasize and sometimes demonize the concept of peer review by people outside the "Christian community" altogether. For simplicity's sake I'm referring to it as one community even though we know there are many sub-communities who often have strong differences, sometimes going all the way up even to the question of the divinity of Jesus.