Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 27th, 2012
So there’s this fundamentalist, ultra-Calvinist , hyper-macho leader of a mega-church in Seattle named Mark Driscoll. He’s known for reaching out to young males by appealing to their latent misygony and homophobia; i.e., to build them up by putting others down. Disturbing as that is, that’s not why I’m writing today. I write because I [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 26th, 2011
As I write this note, it is 12:30PM and I’m sitting comfortably in my office at the NC Council of Churches. At 3PM, though, I will be in the gallery at the NC Legislature, and by late this afternoon I may find myself in jail.
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 5th, 2011
Once we ask the ominous question “Who are they?” by inherent contradiction we are then led to the question “Who am I without a ‘They’?’ That question is laced with enough trepidation that it keeps the bravest of people out of the light and deeper into the dark.
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 1st, 2010
Jesus had to leave in order for his friends to realize that ‘Lo, I am with you always till the end of the age’. Jesus had to dematerialize for his movement to materialize. This is very much like belief, it too must dematerialize to materialize into its naturally maleable form.
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 17th, 2010
Believing there is a code to be cracked is of course much the same as believing in the existence of some Big Other: in every case what is wanted is an agent who will give structure to our chaotic social lives. – Zizek Our attraction to figuring things out stems from the erotic drives within [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 5th, 2010
To David, there is power in the uknowning. In the unraveling. In the dismantling journey towards unbelief. Where unbelief is true belief. David takes it too far. By focusing outside the temple and outside of the mountain, the very foundation of the temple, David is basically condemning these things as useless. Much like Jesus did when he spoke to the institutional representatives and told them they were dead inside. David is challenging us to see that the foundation of the institutions are the issue.
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 31st, 2010
According to process theology – everything is in process – (some ancient jews defined perfection as being in process) – then the last thing we want to do is “arrive.” This is why deconstruction as part of our process is so important, it keeps us ‘perfect’ – maybe idolatry is about worshipping the ‘god’s we don’t dismantle.
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 21st, 2010
“Love one another” – Jesus. When we deem someone as other, we create even more distance between us and that person. Sometimes, and quite unfairly, that person that is the other gets labeled as a sinner. The label itself engenders a picture of someone who is chronically addicted to a destructive way of life. When we create others we create outsiders.
Posted in Uncategorized on May 26th, 2010
The ancient Greek word for sin, hamartia, is an archery term that refers to missing the mark. It evokes an image of someone who tries to hit the bull’s eye, who has the intention of hitting it dead on, but who fails. As pure as our intentions may have been, what if our past interpretations [...]
