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Home Improvement Meets the Gospel

Home Improvement Meets the Gospel

How two co-founders of the home-supply store TreeHouse infuse their business with environmentally sound faith.

Austin, Texas—with its "Keep Austin Weird" motto emblazoned on locals' t-shirts and bumper stickers—is ground zero for a green-building revolution, due in no small part to nearby University of Texas, hipster culture, and ...

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Displaying 6–10 of 11 comments.

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Rick Dalbey

May 19, 2013  2:32pm

Ray, the Democrat talking points I referred to are the constant repetition of “the common good” which has been incorporated into most state Democratic party platforms since 2005 and has been repeated endlessly in Sojourners and in this City section. The church for the first 100 years took care of the poor OF THE CHURCH. Not the poor of the entire Roman Empire. And it was means tested. “A widow who is put on the list for support must be a woman who is at least sixty years old and was faithful to her husband. She must be well respected by everyone because of the good she has done. Has she brought up her children well? Has she been kind to strangers and served other believers humbly? Has she helped those who are in trouble? Has she always been ready to do good?” 1 Tim. 5. Those are the biblical principals. How about we apply that to welfare today? We've NEVER been called to alleviate global poverty. We were called to heal the sick through the laying on of hands as it says in the gospels.

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Ray Blunt

May 19, 2013  12:04pm

Rick, Thanks. I guess I interpreted your observation that these young Christian men were living out "Democratic talking points" as a political inference. I agree this is irrelevant to the Gospel and share your antipathy toward the recent Christian initiatives to leverage political power rather than the power of God's Spirit. But I think you may misunderstand what the Gospel is by limiting it to devoting our attentions to "introducing people to the Savior." The Gospel certainly is that . . . but far more. The Christian church grew as it lived the Gospel as well as proclaimed it. They cared for the sick when the plague struck the Roman empire; they loved their enemies even when they were being killed; they met the needs of the poor rather than ignored and marginalized them. Christ came to restore the creation and that is a part of what these young men are doing. They are Christians in a business that seeks the good of the city and the people around them even as Jeremiah advised.

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Roger McKinney

May 19, 2013  9:32am

I don't get what makes the business more Christian than Lowe's or any lumber yard. Businesses are "Christian" if they deal honestly with their stake holders. Whole Foods is not more Christian than Walmart because of what it sells. It merely appeals to rich people with guilty consciences and ignores the poor. Walmart appeals to the poor. "Sustainability" is not sustainable if only the rich can afford it. And it has nothing to do with Christianity or stewardship. The reason homes use more energy is their size. The average size of homes has doubled in the past generation as Americans have become wealthier. But there is no scientific reason to think that is unsustainable.

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Rick Dalbey

May 18, 2013  10:20pm

Of course I have good intentions Ray, as I presume you do too. Why are you introducing politics, Republican/Democrat dynamics? I fear you are trying to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That Dominionist fantasy is what produced the Holy Roman Empire. No matter how well intentioned our utopias they all become dystopias. The author of Hebrews says, “Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” We, like Abraham, are “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” In the meantime we live the best lives possible but devote our attentions to introducing people to the Savior. “According to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” As Jesus said, the fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Ray, do what the 12 the 70 and the 120 did.

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Ray Blunt

May 18, 2013  8:17pm

Rick, I think you have good intentions but perhaps ought to consider the gospel that Christ proclaimed--the coming of the Kingdom was what he announced. From Genesis 3 onward, God has been working to restore his creation from people to every square inch that has been contaminated by sin. The implication of redemption is far wider and more generous and restoring health, stewarding what we were given to be stewards of, AND preaching Christ crucified and resurrected and sitting at God's right hand is all of a whole cloth. Why read out certain Christians who do ALL of this like these good men, Jim Wallis, and Democrats. The task God gave Adam to do is echoed by the task Jesus gave his disciples to do--to go and make disciples and to do all he taught which, as the Word, is the sum of the whole counsel of God. Don't make our God too small or our ranks too limited to a Republican view or any other view that is less gracious than God Himself.

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