Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 1st, 2011
It wasn’t until I was ordained after earning my Masters of Divinity degree that I came to own that pro-gay stance on a more heart-felt level. Before the ordination service took place, Beryl gave me a present — the clerical robe worn by her son Ron when he was a pastor. I was being given the gift of wearing the robe that had been worn by an oppressed gay man who died of AIDS.
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 Nov 12th, 2010
So what does this world look like without ‘theology’? What it means is that competition and apologetics are near non-existent in their current forms. That we don’t have to be right. That beyond our theories lies humanity at its best.
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 3rd, 2010
We tend to create desire out of the desire of the other. The other could be law, society, God, peers and Other others. We attempt to try to fill these gaps of desire with things that cannot truly fill them. They are representations of representations. And so they aren’t Real, they are simply real. The idea of love is a shadow to love. All of our ideas of love make up what love should/could be.
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 25th, 2010
We are in danger of losing everything: the threat is that we will be reduced to abstract subjects devoid of all substantial content, dispossessed of our symbolic substance, our genetic base heavily manipulated, vegetating in an unlivable environment. – Zizek Atheist philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek is talking of the inherent problems with capitalism [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 17th, 2010
“Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the market rather than by central planning by the government; profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses, and wages [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 13th, 2010
“Status is important sociologically because it comes with a set of rights, obligations, behaviors, and duties that people occupying a certain position are expected or encouraged to perform” Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if [...]
