It is finished! We just had an amazing time at the subvert the norm conference at drury university in Springfield Missouri. There were some well known voices and some new voices that were added to the conference for this second installment. However, this is not an update, I will leave that up to those who are much more detailed than I. But I do want to deal with an issue that was highlighted towards the end of the conference. I... Read more
It seems that almost no one thinks that “our side” has lost. It’s only a matter of time until same sex marriage has become the new normal. But, many conservatives are making another argument in response to this impending change: “Christians” will be persecuted for their beliefs. Is this true? Well, one problem with this argument is that it assumes that all Christians are the same. Using a statement like “Christians think…” makes almost no sense. Christians have differing opinions... Read more
There is a passage in Scripture that says not to swear by anything on the earth or the heavens, but let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”. (James 5:12) I think one of the fundamental blocks most people struggle with is the desire to be a selfless person; and yet as a result of obligation, guilt and expectations, we lose the honesty of our “yes” and our “no”, and thus become selfish because the meaning of our... Read more
Soon after I left the New Reformed movement, I took an American Literature class. I was surprised to learn just how much Calvinism had influenced many of the early American classics. One author in particular drew me in: Nathaniel Hawthorne. I don’t know much about Hawthorne, but after I read Young Goodman Brown, it felt like I knew exactly where he was coming from. The first negative experience I can remember coming from a New Calvinist preacher was when he... Read more
Some reflections about reclaiming our muchness after talking to Richard Rohr and Mike Stavlund on Doug Pagitt Radio. http://dougpagittradio.com/reclaiming-muchness Read more
It wasn’t until recently I realized that I had somehow lost a bunch of digital files off my computer. It was mainly photos and newspaper articles from my activist work when I lived in the San Francisco/Bay Area from the late 90’s to the mid 2000’s. That loss left me feeling sick with the thought that a deeply formative part of my life was gone. My experience with Occupy Movement organizing left me longing to reconstruct what was good, strategic... Read more
This past week, this post has been circulating around the more evangelical corners of the interwebs. While I understand the desire to focus on holy week (trust me, liturgical seasons are big in the Anderson household), I think it’s complete BS. For those of you who didn’t read the post, it essentially says that the “paint the internet red” campaign by HRC is Satan’s way of distracting us from holy week. Seriously? That is some of the most transparent BS I’ve seen ever since the... Read more
It was another busy week on Doug Pagitt radio. We had a chance to chat with Weber grill aficionado, professor, and author Mike Stavlund about his new book A Force of Will: Reshaping Your Faith in a Year of Grief. Victoria also shared a poem for Easter. We even had a guest call in to give us a post out-patient procedure update. Here’s the audio: Here’s the video: Read more
This past weekend my wife and I fell into an interesting dilemma. Our 12-year-old son wanted to go with a friend to church. My initial response was, “Sure, no big deal.” I spoke with the friend’s mom on the phone about it, and she came by and picked him up on Sunday morning. He spent the morning and part of the afternoon with them and their church friends. Shortly after I said okay, I started looking around on the internet... Read more
A little over three years ago, I was part of the center of the New Reformed movement. One of the final straws for me was an event of which I was the Director: Advance09. We brought in heavyweight speakers like Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, Ed Stetzer, and a few others. The event was held at the Durham Performing Arts Center, and approximately 2500 people showed up. Overall, as a business venture, the conference went really well. People seemed... Read more
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