Obsess Much?

September 27, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

I don’t normally engage other Patheos contributors, but sometimes, just for fun, I like any readers to experience my poor choices in real time. Consider this a work of translation with commentary. Here we go: “Progressives keep promising conservative evangelicals they’ll be our friends if only we stop harping on sex and serve people. The problem is that every time evangelicals try to serve people, progressives want to harp on sex.” Translation: We don’t see this as a discrimination issue,... Read more

Open Bibles—Open Minds

September 19, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

Something I found growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, was that having a closed mind was almost championed as a good thing. The more one knew about Scripture and the less one knew about “secular” literature, science, movies, music, popular culture, and philosophy, the more “spiritual” one was considered to be. Ignorance of things outside the Bible was often worn as a badge of honor. Looking back, I think, how very sad. Also, how very contrary to the Christian faith... Read more

When the World is on Fire

September 5, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

(I wrote this at the height of the recent fires in Northern California) As I write this the landscape outside my window looks like some sort of dystopian hellscape of apocalyptic red and grey. Ash is falling. Smoke is in our nostrils. The sun is a blood orange orb floating in a sooty sky. One can easily glance at it due to the haze and smoke. And yet, I don’t want to as it looks like the all-seeing eye of... Read more

A Theology That Bleeds

August 24, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

In my former life as an evangelical (really more a fundamentalist) I was always interested in the debate over eternal security and whether or not one could lose their salvation. Even at the age of 13 or so, I would read anything I could find regarding the Calvinist/Arminian debate. Yes, weird, I know (this may explain a lot about my childhood…). As an adult, and probably right before seminary, I became a fairly strident Calvinist. How, I wondered, was this not... Read more

Christ: The End of Religion, Part Two

August 14, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

In the following, what I present is an interpretation from a finite, limited perspective (obviously). Like all of us, I’m presenting a narrative—not a mathematical equation. What any reader wants to make of it is up to them. This post is for people who believe there is more to existence, ontologically speaking, than just the physical/material. If you believe the physical/material is all that exists, great, but look elsewhere to opine or argue. This post is for Christians or those... Read more

Christ: The End of Religion, Part One

August 8, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

Biblical Justice is Social Justice

July 15, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

Running through the theological framework of fundamentalism and evangelicalism, perhaps even the Protestant tradition, is the discernible need to dichotomize everything. Of course, it’s a feature of modernity. Whether it’s works vs. grace, scripture vs. tradition, etc., it has to be either one or the other; see here for another example regarding the gospel and social justice. We see the same thing happening in this post. We see two mutual concepts being needlessly opposed or separated. I would counter that biblical... Read more

Is Separating the Gospel from Social Justice a Sign of White Privilege?

July 9, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

I’m suspicious. When I read or hear something put out by those most critical of the social justice movement, I often wonder if the true reasons for their opposition are more cultural than theological. There are obvious reasons I’m suspicious. The overwhelming number of voices critical of social justice are white, male, and evangelical/fundamentalist. Here is a good example. The great majority have rarely, if ever, had to deal with the same cultural, social, political and economic issues as their... Read more

Evangelicals Are Attracted to Conspiracy Theories—Why?

June 22, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

Many voices from across the evangelical spectrum have all noted the same problem, which is that too many evangelicals in the pews are prone to believe and echo conspiracy theories. See here, here, and here. However, while these critics, to their credit, note the problem—there doesn’t seem to be many theories as to why evangelicals do this, other than to agree it’s a problem. They point out the harm it does, but, again, not why the problem exists. Few seem... Read more

Who’s Afraid of Progressive Christianity?

June 6, 2020 By Darrell Lackey

Clearly, Alisa Childers is. Obviously, I write on the Progressive Christianity platform created by Patheos. However, I’m not especially fond of or enamored with the label. Labels are boxes that too often hide more than they reveal. I would hazard to guess that many Christians feel the same way, whatever the label, whether “conservative,” “evangelical,” whatever. All of us are more than the labels used to describe us. The only thing a label can do is offer a tendency, a... Read more