by Matt Bays This is God’s season…Lent…Easter. It’s the time of year when some of us religious folk smear ashes on our foreheads on Wednesday, get regular about eating fish on Friday, give up smoking, coffee, or TV for six weeks, and partake of the wine and bread that represents the one who threw himself on an executioner’s cross so we could intimately commune with the God of the universe. Trouble is, the season of Lent seldom manages to connect... Read more
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a weekly Lenten series on the body and blood of Christ by Church History Professor Kelly Pigott. In 1054 CE, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, picked a fight with Pope Leo IX. Cardinal Humbert was sent to Constantinople to try to work things out. He was absolutely the wrong person to send. He already had a reputation for being a bit of a hatchet man for his strict approach to reforming the church. And so when Patriarch... Read more
There’s a picture floating around on the internet of Jesus slapping his forehead in frustration and bewilderment, much like Homer Simpson would do on the Simpsons. Every time I see it, I can picture Jesus saying in a very Homer-like voice, “Doh!” If Jesus actually makes such a face, he is undoubtedly making it today. So congratulations, St. Mary’s Cathedral, you have successfully brought out Jesus’ inner Homer Simpson. Perhaps you have seen the news, a story broke recently about... Read more
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a weekly Lenten series on the body and blood of Christ by Church History Professor Kelly Pigott. When the early Christians walked into the room where worship took place, the focal point was a table—not a pulpit, or a baptistery, or a cross, or a computer screen, or a drum set—a table. In one service called an “Agape meal,” they served food like at a covered-dish supper, and at the end of the evening... Read more
Old Testament scholar and preaching professor John C. Holbert joins a Patheos roundtable conversation on “Evolution and Christian Faith,” sponsored by BioLogos. Click here for more perspectives — from evangelical to atheist — on this topic. I would like to respond briefly to several of the videos provided by Biologos, an organization dedicated to the conviction that there need be no incompatibility between belief in the theory of evolution and belief in the tenets of the Bible. Though these videos, in the... Read more
Hey Buddy! You’re looking a little tired and a bit stressed out. We know Easter is only a few weeks away, but trust me, you make it through (just as you do every year, but one word of advice, please remember to heat the water in the baptistery, we’ve still got people talking about the times you forgot to do that). Anyway, we had a moment and we just thought it would be a good idea to check in and let you... Read more
by Timothy Villareal The Rev. Eric Elnes, senior minister of Countryside Community Church (UCC) in Omaha, Nebraska is a most intriguing fellow, and his web-based weekly program “Darkwood Brew” is arguably one of the most content-rich shows in U.S. religion-based programming, though the program itself defies convention. On any given Wednesday night starting at 6:45 (CST), those tuning in – or rather, clicking in – to Darkwook Brew’s live internet broadcast will be treated to in-house performances by some of... Read more
As a prophet and wisdom teacher, Jesus frequently challenged the status quo and employed witty, paradoxical, and sometimes often shockingly hyperbolic statements to counter conventional wisdom with the alternative wisdom of the kingdom of God, particularly on matters related to holiness/purity, reputation/honor, wealth/possessions, power/position, and inner motivation. In her new book, Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life, Benedictine Joan Chittister, while letting go of the shockingly hyperbolic features of Jesus’ method of teaching, beautifully employs... Read more
The day after I became the first Southern Baptist minister to officiate at a same-sex wedding, Rick Lance of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and Travis Coleman, Jr., president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, issued a joint statement called “Stand Strong For Biblical Marriage.” The statement said that any Southern Baptist minister who officiated at a same-sex wedding risked being “disfellowshipped” from the Southern Baptist Convention. The Madison Baptist Association through which my church, Weatherly Heights Baptist,... Read more
Have you ever thrown a party and had no one show up? While this probably happens more regularly than we would prefer to think about, there is a story that has been making the rounds that has touched a nerve in my heart and, based on its circulation throughout the inter-webs, the hearts of a lot of other people as well. Perhaps you have seen the story that has come out of Florida about the family of a boy who decided... Read more
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