{"id":1076,"date":"2014-09-03T10:40:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T14:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=1076"},"modified":"2014-09-06T07:03:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T11:03:04","slug":"todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Religious Rant…from a Professional Ranter"},"content":{"rendered":"

TODAY’s RELIGIOUS RANT<\/span><\/h3>\n

Some very conservative Christian friends of mine (and they seem to be growing fewer and fewer in number these days, which saddens me) are so very offended by me and, very often, justifiably so. I can be very cutting and crass and, as a consequence, come across very insensitive to where other people are in their own pilgrimage. I regret this. Indeed, I am sorry about this. Everyone should be respected for where they are in their own spiritual journey. Wouldn’t you agree? Just because you think (and I confess I sometimes think) others are not as “enlightened” as you are, does not give you (or, me) permission to act like an ass.<\/p>\n

\"Today's<\/a>
Today’s Religious Rant by Dr. Steve McSwain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet, closed-mindedness is so easily threatened, isn’t it? I wish my conservative acquaintances felt more secure in their faith so they’d be less angered by the things I write and just accept me for the weird, quirky little thinker that I am – who is sometimes right or, maybe it would be more accurate to say, seldom right, frequently wrong, but, yes, I am committed to pursuing truth to the best of my ability, however imperfect that gets expressed from time to time.<\/p>\n

From a Professional Ranter<\/span><\/h3>\n

I’m a thinker outside the box and, what so many people do not realize is that I am not even sure if I believe all the things I write. I do so nonetheless as a means of forging a real world faith – one that is my own – because I will not live my life carrying around a bunch of inherited beliefs from those whose good opinions I’m not secure enough to live without. So, my readers, whoever you are…please know that, while I do not expect you to agree with me or to even like me, know that I am who I am – whether you like it or not, and you are who you are – whether I like it or not, and, in the end, isn’t all that really matters is that we respect and receive each other in a spirit of Christ-like love? What could be more important than this? One more thing. I know that I am frequently way off base, as many of you so eloquently remind me – and I am sure remind each other about me. And, that’s OK. I welcome your challenges. But there is one thing you must know about me…and never ever question please. I love Jesus more passionately today than at any other time in my life. And, just because I no longer subscribe to one peculiar way of believing – which for little threatened people is “THEIR” way of believing – does not mean even slightly, that I am not serious about the life I live and the Lord I serve.<\/p>\n

End of Today’s Little RANT! Can I get an AMEN? Or, better, a Hallelujah?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Hi, my name is Steve McSwain. I’m a christian thinker, blogger, writer, and rabble-rouser. I invite you to let me challenge you with the provocative, sometimes controversial, things I think about…write about. I do not ask you to agree. I ask you only to consider…to think for yourself…to forge a real-world faith for yourself.<\/em> Stop being a pansy and grow up in Christ. You are not doing yourself, or the Kingdom, any favors by believing God has appointed you guardian of the truth – no matter what you think the truth is – or the gatekeeper to keep out those who threaten you. Stand on your own two feet.<\/em> God doesn’t need defending. The Bible doesn’t need your worship. Both have been around a lot longer than you have and will be here long after you’re forgotten. So, grow up and live well. You don’t have long here, my friend. The life you live TODAY is the legacy you leave tomorrow. Follow me on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and, most importantly, go to my website and to my “Inspirational Talks” page <\/a>and book me to speak at your next gathering. I’ll speak in almost any setting…business gatherings or religious gatherings, with talks appropriate for both. See for yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TODAY’s RELIGIOUS RANT Some very conservative Christian friends of mine (and they seem to be growing fewer and fewer in number these days, which saddens me) are so very offended by me and, very often, justifiably so. I can be very cutting and crass and, as a consequence, come across very insensitive to where other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1771,95,1772,1774,1773,1768,1769,1770],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-best-life-now","tag-conservative-christians","tag-dr-steve-mcswain","tag-im-a-thinker-outside-the-box","tag-inspirational-talks","tag-professional-ranter","tag-religious-2","tag-religious-rant","tag-todays-religious-rant"],"yoast_head":"\nToday's Religious Rant...from a Professional Ranter - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Today's Religious Rant...from a Professional Ranter - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TODAY’s RELIGIOUS RANT Some very conservative Christian friends of mine (and they seem to be growing fewer and fewer in number these days, which saddens me) are so very offended by me and, very often, justifiably so. I can be very cutting and crass and, as a consequence, come across very insensitive to where other…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-03T14:40:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-06T11:03:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2014\/04\/IMG_1638v1-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"smcswain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Today's Religious Rant...from a Professional Ranter - Your Best Life Now","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Today's Religious Rant...from a Professional Ranter - Your Best Life Now","og_description":"TODAY’s RELIGIOUS RANT Some very conservative Christian friends of mine (and they seem to be growing fewer and fewer in number these days, which saddens me) are so very offended by me and, very often, justifiably so. I can be very cutting and crass and, as a consequence, come across very insensitive to where other…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html","og_site_name":"Your Best Life Now","article_published_time":"2014-09-03T14:40:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-06T11:03:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2014\/04\/IMG_1638v1-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"smcswain","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html","name":"Today's Religious Rant...from a Professional Ranter - Your Best Life Now","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2014\/04\/IMG_1638v1-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-03T14:40:55+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-06T11:03:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#\/schema\/person\/a79b0cba765879c3d1711d801e7b5018"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2014\/04\/IMG_1638v1-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2014\/04\/IMG_1638v1-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2014\/09\/todays-religious-rant-from-a-professional-ranter-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Today’s Religious Rant…from a Professional Ranter"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/","name":"Your Best Life Now","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#\/schema\/person\/a79b0cba765879c3d1711d801e7b5018","name":"smcswain","description":"I'm an Author... Leadership Coach... Counsel to Non-Profits, Faith-based Organizations and Congregations... Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky... Spiritual Teacher... Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. But not always in this order. On the university campus, I teach students the Art of Communication. In my public talks, however, I teach leaders the Art of Leading; I teach everyone the Art of Living...so that... when you come to the end... and, you will come to the end... You're able to look back on life feeling... Fulfilled... Accomplished... Content, Peaceful, and Happy, too... Knowing your brief but important journey has made this world a more... Conscious... Compassionate, and... Charitable place. What could possibly be more important than this?","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.stevemcswain.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/author\/smcswain"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}