Thom Stark wrote the words below on Facebook, and it seemed not just worthwhile but important to share them with a wider audience. Some Americhristians really, really don’t like it when you point out that slavery and polygamy are endorsed by the Bible. Some Americhristians really, really don’t like it when you point out that [Read More…]
Belonging to God
July 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“It is much easier to belong to a group than to belong to God. To belong to a group one usually has to be convinced the group is ‘right’; to belong to God, one always knows one is as wrong as everybody else.” – Fr. Richard Rohr, Job and the Mystery of Suffering: Spiritual Reflections [Read More…]
Question Jesus (He’d Want You To)
July 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Two posts converged recently in my reader – one from David Hayward with the above cartoon, the other from Neil Carter about the last time he went to Sunday school, and the impact that the discussion of the Israelite extermination of the Canaanites had on him. In the latter post, Carter writes: Religious dogma can put [Read More…]
When Churches Make People Need Therapy (or Why Anti-Gay Christianity is an Abomination)
July 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I confess that I was not aware of Shane Dawson before I saw this video which has been circulating over the past couple of days. [NOTE: video contains swearing] I want to express my appreciation for the honest sincerity with which Dawson talks about his sexual identity. And I want to draw attention to the role that [Read More…]
The Opposite of Faith
July 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Kim Fabricius considers a number of possible and oft-proposed identifications for the opposite of faith, and proposes that the real opposite of faith is fear. He writes: There is a lot of fear around in the church today. Fundamentalists are afraid of scholarship and science. Traditionalists are afraid of change and newness. Many of us are anxious [Read More…]
Church of the Marginalized
July 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Dianna Anderson writes, Being part of the Church is, by definition, to embrace and work from and with the margins. It is to understand that the margins – those prized and created and beloved by God, those we are called to care for – are so significant to the church as to become the face of [Read More…]
Hundreds of Answers and Eighty-One Questions
July 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Kevin DeYoung posted 40 questions on the Gospel Coalition website, aimed at Christians who support marriage equality. They are all the sort of thing you would expect from a conservative Christian website like The Gospel Coalition – and thus are things which most Christians who’ve thought about this issue will have already considered. A lot of people [Read More…]
Progressive Christians of Indiana
July 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I had someone ask me if there was an organization of progressive and liberal Christians in Indiana. There didn’t seem to be. And so I have set up a Facebook page, “Progressive Christians of Indiana.” If you are in that category, please do like the page on Facebook! Hopefully it will prove to be a [Read More…]
What If You’re Wrong?
July 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Multiple posts came to my attention recently, all of which seek to respond to the conservative assumption that it is liberals who need to worry about being wrong in accepting gays and lesbians, as well as more generally. Cindy Brandt writes, To be honest, I am not certain this is the correct stance to take. Long ago, I repented of [Read More…]
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