An Evangelical Interpretation of “Call Me Maybe”

July 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Jonathan Harrison of the blog, On Pop Theology, has a clever post about the song that my daughter can’t stop singing:

On November 21, 1985, in the quiet town of Mission, the Norse demi-goddess known only to humanity as Carley Rae Jepson manifested herself on the bucolic plains of British Columbia.  Raised by a pack of she-wolves, and rumored to have emanated from the forehead of her sire Billy Rae (sic) Cyrus (Norse God of the Mullet), Jepson soon set out to diligently study the art of music, so that one day when humanity needed her the most, she would unleash upon the world her epic creation.

Summers came and went. Jepson was not sure if humanity would ever need her, and if she had not wasted her time learning the sacred art of putting the beat on 1 and 3 and how to rhyme words such as “maybe” and “crazy”. She became despondent, downtrodden, and, dare we say, disconsolate. Would it happen? Would humanity ever cry out for her aid?

Then came the summer of Gotye. And she knew, it was time.

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Yes, Zondervan Has Jumped the Shark

July 25, 2012 By 66 Comments

A while back, I asked whether Zondervan had jumped the shark, based on their publication of the Playful Puppies Bible.

Yes, it turns out they have. As proof, see Our Constitution Rocks by 14-year-old FOX News conservative, Juliette Turner. Seriously, you’ve got to watch this promo video — there are even outtakes at the end:

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Now Chik-fil-A Is Pretending To Be a Bible-Quoting Teenage Girl

July 25, 2012 By 15 Comments

Already shown up by Jim Henson’s widow, who pulled the partnership with the evangelical chicken chain, Chik-fil-A has engaged in PR stupidity that would make a good Brady Bunch episode. Signs were posted at Chik-fil-A’s stating that the Muppet promotion had ended due to unsafe toys, while the real reason was the outspoken homophobia of the chain’s CEO.

Then, rather than fessing up to it, Chik-fil-A (or its proxy) invented a Facebook profile of a teenage girl named Abby Farle, using a stock photo, and went online to defend Chik-fil-A and drop “John 3:16″ in the comments, as if that settles it.

Here’s the image from Gizmodo:

Listen, I get that progressive/liberal Christians do dumb stuff. But, seriously, the complete idiocy of right-wing Christians is breathtaking.

Update: Gizmodo now reports that Chik-fil-A denies having anything to do with it. I knew it!

PPS: Be sure to like Abby’s Facebook page.

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How Long Will It Take for an Evangelical to Blame the Colorado Shooting on Satan?

July 20, 2012 By 44 Comments

Evangelist Greg Stier is really mad at Satan for killing all those people in Colorado.

Too late! Greg Stier, of Dare 2 Share, already did:

This morning I got a text from my friend and fellow preacher Derwin Gray. He is a church planter and pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina but is best known for being “The Evangelism Linebacker.” Derwin traveled with Dare 2 Share for two years and we have grown a powerful friendship as a result.

Our text exchange was this,

“It’s crazy how shootings take place in Colorado”

“I don’t understand” (my response)

“I meant Columbine and now the shootings last night at the Batman movie.”

“I know. I just meant I don’t understand why this happens so much in Colorado.” (my response)

“I wonder if there is a demonic stronghold….”

My one word response was “probably.”

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Shane Hipps Leaving Mars Hill

May 29, 2012 By 34 Comments

Shane Hipps and Rob Bell: Soon neither will be at Mars Hill

My dear friend (and camp counselee, circa 1984), Shane Hipps, announced yesterday that he will be leaving Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when the Board of Elders selects a new teaching pastor. Here’s part of Shane’s announcement:

I came face to face with one of the most powerful and difficult ingredients in discovering call  — the role of limits.

In this process I kept bumping up against two limits.  First, I bumped up against the decision the Elders made.  They created a role that was very different than the one I am currently in.  I had to confront the reality of an external set of limits that had been created.  This happens all the time in life.  We confront things on the outside we wish could be different.  Choices our loved ones make, illness, and economic downturns.  The Elders made a series of choices which they believe were in the best interest of this community.  In the process I was presented with new limits.

The second and far more substantial limit was internal.  Everyone of us has an interior shape and size.  Some of that is predetermined and unchangeable like our height.  It’s just how we got made and no amount of effort can change it.  Some of that inner shape is like our weight, we can actually do something to reshape it, adjust it, change it.  It’s not easy, but it is possible if we are truly called to something.

The road at Mars Hill has been tumultuous. Many parishioners left when Love Wins came out. More left when Rob Bell departed for California. The church staff has suffered through many rounds of layoffs, the latest being last week. Now Shane is leaving and, by the looks of the comments on his blog, some congregants don’t understand why.

Rob Bell had an odd arrangement with the church: in the latter years of his tenure, he didn’t lead the staff, and he had virtually no pastoral duties other than preaching (which they call “teaching”). Shane came in under that arrangement. While I can understand the Elders’ decision to move in a more conventional direction — with a pastor who does the majority of the preaching — it seems odd that this person will report to the executive director of the church. It makes you wonder: What gifted preacher would come to Mars Hill without also being able to lead the staff?

We can only assume that the Elders know the church best, and that they think this unusual arrangement will work. Many of us will be watching to see if it does.

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When Are Women Going to Revolt?

March 23, 2012 By 23 Comments

Eve by Anna Lea Merritt

There was an interesting column in Martin Marty‘s Sightings this week, linking the unlikely pair of Lisa Miller and Jim Henderson, both of whom are predicting that women are on the verge of leaving Evangelico-Republicanism en masse.

Felice Lifshitz writes,

Christianity has consistently been open to pro-feminist movements, but this has resulted neither in a fundamental egalitarian transformation of Christian institutions, nor in a mass exodus of disaffected women. The current wave of “resignations” fits squarely into a 2000-year-old tradition of tension over gender and spiritual authority; if proponents of patriarchal forms of religious organization do not feel particularly threatened by the alarm bells Henderson has rung for them, it is because historical precedent encourages complacency on their part. After all, their predecessors always managed to hold on to power. “The men of the right” have found, in every generation, a substantial number of Christian women who considered the limited roles and secondary status allotted to them to be quite comfortable. It is certainly easier to execute simple, circumscribed tasks such as meal preparation than to shoulder the responsibility for major policy decisions. But every generation has also witnessed rebellion and discontent. (Read the rest: Patriarchy’s Persistent Bastion? Religion by Felice Lifshitz.)

I’m not so sure. Every time I get excited that women are really, truly, exerting feminist independence within evangelicalism, I read something like this, in which Rachel Held Evans agreed to take the word “vagina” out of her forthcoming book on women and the Bible out of concern for evangelical bookstores.

It’s tragic, I think. So maybe Miller and Henderson are right. Maybe the women of Evangelico-Republicanism are going to revolt. I, for one, hope that they do.

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The Shifting Sands of “Evangelicalism”

February 15, 2012 By 5 Comments

There is no more accomplished student of American Protestantism than Martin Marty. This week, he muses on how odd it is that evangelical leaders are teaming up with Catholic bishops to fight the Obama administration. Evangelicalism, he writes, has in the past few decades shifted from a type of private piety to a publicly political category:

Martin Marty

“Evangelical” in this case has become the code word for the ever-expanding population of conservative Protestants who joined and join some Catholics on the front lines of Cultural Warfare. They may be great-great-great grandchildren of nineteenth-century Protestant activists, but in most of the twentieth century such activists had backed off and changed their mission. In 1970 in Righteous Empire I could speak of Evangelicalism as largely “Private Protestantism,” which “accented individual salvation out of the world” over against what latter came to be called “Mainline.” It had been “‘Public’ Protestantism,” which was more exposed to the social order and the social destinies of citizens. Note: there remain plenty of ‘Mainline’ and ‘Public’ Protestant Activists in action today, but the cameras and microphones have turned attention from them. What is going on and what has gone on with the Mainliners, who have left a cultural niche or a political canyon to be occupied by activist “Public Evangelicals?” In one word, “Accommodation,” specifically “The Accommodation of Protestant Christianity with the Enlightenment.”

READ THE REST: Protestant Accommodation by Martin E. Marty.

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Young Creatives Are Fleeing Evangelicalism

February 14, 2012 By 17 Comments

The Barna Group* has a new study out, and it shows that the future is bleak for the evangelical church in America. That’s because young, creative evangelicals are leaving the church in droves:

The results of a five-year study of the Millennial Generation—people born between 1982 and 1993—are in. Thanks to the Barna Group, a 28-year-old, California-based, Christian research firm, we now know that conservative evangelical churches are losing formerly–affiliated “young creatives:” Actors, artists, biologists, designers, mathematicians, medical students, musicians, and writers.

Some leave because they oppose the church’s doctrinal stance. Others are turned off by its hostility to science, and still others reject the limitations placed on permissible sexual activity. The report cites the tension felt by young adults who find it difficult—if not impossible—to remain “sexually pure,” especially since most heterosexuals don’t marry until their mid-to-late twenties. [READ THE REST]

This comes as no surprise. As I wrote last week, a significant impetus for the birth of the emergent church movement was to find solidarity with cultural creatives. At least at Solomon’s Porch, we’ve been successful at that.

HT: Rollie

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*I am always suspicious of research from the Barna Group. George Barna is not a neutral, disinterested pollster. He is an activist partisan who has written many books; he’s advocated for the demise of traditional churches and the rise of house churches; and he recently endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. He is the FOX News of polling; that doesn’t mean that he’s not accurate, it just means that he’s not neutral.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: , 17 Comments

Are You a Biblically Qualified Pastor?

February 13, 2012 By 19 Comments

If so, then you might want to consider applying for this job in Coal Township, Pennsylvania. Here are some of the money quotes from the online job posting:

We are currently looking for a Pastor for our church in Coal Township, PA. Currently we hold services once a week at my home with our 6 members with me teaching due to the lack of a Biblically based church in our area. We are looking for a Pastor who is BIBLICALLY QUALIFIED and KING JAMES ONLY! We also need a Pastor who is constantly reading and studying God’s word.

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Writing a Book About How RADICAL Jesus Is? Please Stop Boring Me.

November 14, 2011 By 32 Comments

My Jesus is more AWESOMELY RADICAL than your Jesus!

Every week I get a book in the mail from a Christian publisher.  It’s another book about how incredibly, totally, awesomely, sacreligiously RADICAL Jesus is.

Inevitably, the book uncovers the scandal that the church has missed out on how RADICAL Jesus is, and the erstwhile author trots out the usual list of examples from the life of Jesus about how he RADICALLY challenged the religious authorities of his day.  And how he RADICALLY hung on the cross.  I mean, he was seriously RADICAL.  How could we have missed that for so long?!?

But here’s what’s interesting to me: These books are almost always by evangelical authors and from evangelical publishers.  And guess what seems to be missing?  That’s right, advocacy for GLBT persons in the life of the church and society.  These authors are quick to trumpet Jesus’ advocacy for lepers, but they are painstakingly silent on the one social issue that is rending the church today: same-sex relations.  I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long time since I met a leper.

While I appreciate that many evangelicals are being cured of their Paulophilia and are shifting their focus back to Jesus, I wonder just how radical they’re going to let Jesus be.

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