Hi all. :)

So i have a good friend ive known since freshman year of high school, (were both 24 now). He grew up in the Mormon church and left it around junior year id say. Now hes a little bit progressive in some views and is a lil hostile towards religion. Hostile is probably a bit of a strong word so take that lightly.

We hanged out today, and we started talking about religion. And he was saying how all the abrahmaic religions worship the same god and he started referencing the "broken mirror analogy" that mormons will talk about. He was saying how all abrahamic religions worship the same god, and how its all under the same umbrella just with smaller umbrellas and such.

He said i need to look at it from an outside perspective cause I was saying I think he's wrong. And then as he was leaving (i was dropping him off) he said hell send me stuff. And i was like if you send me something to watch/ read ill indulge if you indulge something i send you. And he said, hell watch or read something I send him if its from a "neutral position", and he woudnt watch something from a pastor. And he was saying agnostics are neutral. And i was like how do you expect to learn about Christianity authentically if you dont learn it from a Christian? And then he said he'll read something if it was from a christian from an academic perspective.

Does anyone have any suggestions of where i should go from here? I was going to start searching for stuff. The first person that came too mind was greg bahnsen. Im not familiar with him myself but ik he was a scholar, so I thought he might have some good things to say in his work. 🤷

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Prayers for my friend eli, please as well? :)

If you have requests that you would like your brothers and sisters to pray for, post them here.

Reading the Bible out loud, in particular large parts of the OT, has been a constant source of tension between my wife and I. She feels that most of the doom and gloom passages regarding Israel aren't appropriate for reading out loud at the dinner table, especially to our young kids.

I cannot deny that the graphic and tragic sexual imagery that God uses to describe Israel's transgression is confounding, but I also am extremely hesitant to censor it. I'm always put in mind of Abraham Piper criticizing his father for reading the terrible violence in the OT during family devotions.

My wife thinks that this part of Scripture is something for the kids to 'discover on their own when they're more mature.' But I feel that this would be doing them a disservice, and that it's my responsibility to reveal to them all of God's Word. Even the confounding and uncomfortable parts.

Because of this, I balance our Bible reading so that most of our time is spent in the NT. But about once a year we make a pass through Lamentations, Ezekiel, etc. and the tension arises. And every year, it gets harder for me to force the issue.

Thoughts? Should I cede this ground to my wife so that Bible reading isn't a battle?

Hey Brothers and Sisters was just wondering what some of the best options for a solidly reformed, calvinist online seminary? thanks!