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See the degree of inequality
For many of us, the notion of inequality is intolerable. A system that perpetuates poverty is an affront to our faith and belief about what we are called to do in this world. Of course not everybody has the same conviction. As this video highlights, however, virtually everybody believes the system is inappropriately rigged and…
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Bible app doesn’t get the season
A real push notification on my phone right now: As the Easter season begins, start a Reading Plan today Two gut responses: The “Bible” app, YouVersion doesn’t actually know that Lent begins today, not Easter? Who doesn’t get that Lent isn’t Easter? The Advent/Christmas problem is invading Lent! The world mischaracterizes Advent as the Christmas…
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When Torture Became Conventional
Last fall, The Walking Dead had its inevitable torture episode. It wasn’t surprising from a show that is so gleefully violent and revels in the dark recesses of the human psyche. As the story arc progressed, it became only a matter of time before one human would torture another. There was always something truly inevitable…
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Love King? Live Kingdom.
MLK was a visionary, not because he was a civil rights leader or because he was faith leader, but because he had vision: he understood Jesus’s vision. And he cast it out for us to see. A world in which we lived the Kingdom of GOD, not just paying it lip service. A vision in which he famously…
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What I Heard Phyllis Say
At the end of last week’s Emergence Christianity conference (#EC13) there was a confusion. Phyllis Tickle, the conference keynote speaker, who presented her work on Emergence Christianity throughout, made a couple of controversial statements. Julie Clawson makes a good accounting for them here. However, I heard her differently. First, I will state that I…
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A Ridiculously Basic Introduction to Emergence Christianity
Before I begin, I need to give a whole bunch of caveats. First, this is not only ridiculously basic, but inappropriately basic. The subject is too big to cast in just a few sentences. Second, you should probably just go out and buy Phyllis Tickle’s book of the same name and read it yourself. Third, I have…
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How the Grinch Stole this Christmas
or Guns, Grinch, and Faith My wife loves that her two favorite Christmas specials are also our daughter’s. She loves A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it isn’t really Christmas until we’ve watched them both. And now, watched them at least a half dozen times each. A few weeks ago,…
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Advent and Apocalypse
I have been writing and announcing Advent for a few weeks now. I’ve described the primary way the church imagines the season is through the lens of hopeful expectation. Until Sunday, I had refrained from discussing the church’s other focus. That perhaps this season is less about retelling the story of Jesus’s first coming and…