The Silence (and Silencing) of the Clergy

January 17, 2019 By Clint Schnekloth

According to my letter of call, my congregation called me to preach and teach. I guess this means I have to commit to saying things within hearing distance of others. Additionally, my letter indicates I’m called to do traditional pastor-like stuff: sacraments, worship, pastoral care, encourage others to ministry, etc. Then, as if the preaching and teaching weren’t enough, it indicates I’m supposed to speak for justice in behalf of the poor and oppressed, and equip my congregation for witness and service, and guide... Read more

Wish You Had More Friends?

January 6, 2019 By Clint Schnekloth

All my friends on Facebook told me they loved this recent meme: How do I know they loved it? Well, they clicked the like button. Also, I know they’re my friends because that’s what Facebook calls them. All 4400 of them. But more seriously, this whole friendship-in-adulthood thing is a struggle. Am I right? Let me confess to you why I find friendship to be a struggle, and perhaps you can relate. So I’m a pastor. I’m also a dad.... Read more

Religious Trends To Watch In 2019

December 31, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

The struggle is real… In some ways, 2018 was rough for communities of faith. If you’re in the caring-for-humans business while many measures of human flourishing are on the decline, well… you’ve got your work cut out for you. For example. U.S. life expectancy has been dropping since 2016, dropping again this year because suicide rates are at a 50-year peak. The opioid crisis continues to ramp up, especially in economically struggling rural communities. Meanwhile authoritarian nationalism has both decreased vital... Read more

The Underside Of Christmas

December 20, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

tonight I’m thinking about a Christmas story, maybe a story not frequently told this way, so here it is. There were glory days in Israel. Around the time of David, him having consolidated the kingdom and then passed power to his son, Solomon, who with clean hands (no wars to fight, his dad did that) built the temple and the wealth of the nation. These were glorious days. Then it all fell apart. Civil war, the weakening of the state.... Read more

Pompei | A Poem “For” Advent

December 14, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

A guest Advent post by David Greer. They call this a flash-heated death. The death is instantaneous. Extremities curl, like so, in cadaveric spasm. For twenty centuries he has been bound in stone. Inside the hull, where body had been, a jar of stone, and inside the jar, burned and tarred, the book, cradled, as one would cradle a child. We have the science these days. We could peel it open, and with our devices we could read it, if... Read more

To Trump Or Not To Trump: That Is The Question

December 3, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

It turns out publishers have dramatically under-estimated the appetite for books about Donald Trump. Even if the publishers prefer not to hyper-focus on this president, they have little choice. Trump books, or Trump-adjacent books, sell. Big time. Think Bob Woodward and Michael Wolff. Meanwhile, at the Jim Acosta press credential revocation, I had been thinking the entire press could be wise to simply not attend any press conferences or give Trump any press. Wouldn’t it be a blessed relief if... Read more

Where Have All The Churches Gone In New Urbanism?

November 27, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

Growing Into New Urbanism I live in a growing city in a growing region. Fayetteville frequently gets short-listed as one of the best places to live in the United States. Northwest Arkansas may be adding as many as 30 residents a day (think Walmart, Tyson, and a land-grant university), which means in the next five years, we’ll add an additional city’s worth of residents to our region. This leaves many of our regional leaders hyper-aware, vigilant about the impact of... Read more

Young, Gifted, and Black in the ELCA

November 25, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

Let’s call a thing what it is. The denomination in which I serve (the ELCA) is one of the whitest Christian denominations in the United States. Statistically, we’re as lacking in racial diversity as a few other denominations like the United Methodists and Episcopalians, and overall, mainline Protestant churches are much less diverse than the U.S. population. But by any measure, we’re on the far end of the spectrum. We could talk about why so many Lutherans look like they... Read more

The Heresy of America First

November 22, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

Here’s a little pre-turkey political theology for your day. Consider, when someone says “America first” what do they mean? What they mean, bottom line, is that the president can do whatever is necessary to sustain the life of the US. Examples: drone strikes on US citizens, suspend asylum rules, any and all proclamations or edicts from the “sovereign” that suspend the rules (which is why almost all of these policies are then challenged by the courts, the last arbiters... Read more

Climate Change and Moral Meat

November 10, 2018 By Clint Schnekloth

Contemporary denial of climate change is not unlike the Galileo affair around 1610. The church and many religious leaders of that era resisted evidence of a heliocentric universe presented by Galileo, so much so that Galileo famously wrote, “My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd. What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not... Read more