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A Pot Church Isn’t the Stunt. The “Sincerely-Held” Standard Is.
The case of a church of pot testing religious freedom on the sincerely-held standard is absurd. Which says more about the standard than the church. It was bound to happen. A pot church claiming a sincere religious belief. This is precisely the case we all imagined when Justice Samuel Alito penned the majority opinion in…
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They Take Offense
When Jesus goes home, he’s surprised by how he’s treated. How they’ve judged him without really knowing him. This is our contrast for what it means to love. They take offense and we move on from there. Proper 9B | Mark 6:1-13 When we moved down to Georgia some years ago, we knew fitting in…
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Change: For the Sake of Change
The phrase is all too common: change for the sake of change. But we don’t actually mean it. We’re trying to say something else without having to say it. People like to say that we shouldn’t change for the sake of change. But it isn’t really true. We often change for the sake of change.…
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Learning to Love – Solving Our Do Unto Others Problem
Many of us get caught in shallow or simplistic arguments about security which don’t match scripture or tradition. Here’s how we can change that. Immigration is always in the zeitgeist. We can’t not talk about it. Some raise it to stoke fear or denigrate our government. But for Christians, immigration is always a pressing political…
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Truly Simple Arguments
In the social media era, separating truth from fiction is hard. Here’s one way you can tell the difference between a real argument and a dishonest one. The difference between a simple argument and a simplistic one is authority. Simplistic arguments try to make complex issues bite-sized. They’re like trading a balanced diet for a…
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Civility
When a fresh outrage comes, we sharpen knives and loosen vocal cords for the usual conversation around civility, asking as always “why can’t we just get along?” as if this were the whole problem. It isn’t. There’s a lot of talk about civility right now. Whether it’s a conversation on Facebook or serving a public…
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Our Do Unto Others Problem
We have a do-unto-others problem. You know, like from the Golden Rule. The one that says we treat each other well. The one that undermines our convictions around immigration. That one. The Golden Rule is ubiquitous. We all know it or some form of it. The phrasing which jumped into my head first is this:…
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The Back of the Boat
In the stilling of the storm in Mark 4:35-41, Jesus opens the disciples to the frightening possibility that they were wrong. And it reminds us that Jesus has the same message for us. “Peace. Be still!” The fear Jesus gets his disciples to face is not the storm. It’s change. Proper 7B | Mark 4:35-41…
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