With just a matter of weeks before Undiluted is released, you’re about to begin hearing about Undiluted… a lot! However, in this business, putting out books means you’re always working ahead– which means I’m part-way into writing a book that is going to hit stores in August of 2015. When I first had the original concept, I thought the title was secure. However the more I write the more I feel like I want to get your feedback to make... Read more
John Piper is “farewelling” again. No, this time it has nothing to do with Rob Bell– he’s actually farewelled Burger King. (Though he changed the Bell trademark to “Good-bye”). Burger King recently announced a new LGBT pride wrapper for their sandwiches in some markets. The move had created a little stir around the internet, but with Piper’s “Goodbye Burger King” tweet, it’s sure to generate a lot more buzz over what should really be a non-issue. In a world where... Read more
I’ve always considered myself “pro-life” though I have distanced myself from the modern pro-life movement as I disagree with the goals (abolition instead of actual reduction) and because it’s not actually “pro-life” in any holistic sense; it’s simply pro-gun, pro-war, and pro-birth. Most of those still culturally entrenched in the modern pro-birth movement have hailed the recent Hobby Lobby decision as a huge victory for the pro-life movement, but I think it’s a total disaster for anyone who is more... Read more
1. It would be way too crowded for them. One of the basic tenets of Christian fundamentalism is the belief that they’re basically going to be the only people who get there. I frequently watch some of their dialogues in online groups (painful opposition research), and what’s sad is that they’re not just out on the streets condemning everyone else to hell– they’re quick to condemn each other as well. By the standards I often see laid out by fundamentalists (such... Read more
My church family– the people I love and serve week in and week out– are not like me. We don’t share the same primary language (church is a mix of French, English, Portuguese, and Lingala), we’re not the same shade of skin, we are not citizens of the same country, and only one of us (me) grew up a person of privilege. With all our differences, they’re still “my people”. They love me, they have accepted me, they have grafted... Read more
The other day Michael Brown agreed to debate Matthew Vines on the issue “can you be gay and still be a Christian?”. If you missed it, they’ve just put the full debate on YouTube, which you can find here below. I’ll present this without my own commentary and everyone can be free to watch, process, and arrive at their own opinion. Read more
Why do American Christians get so ridiculously angry when you question nationalism, or question how nationalism gets grafted into our faith? It seems like every time this question comes up, people get really angry– and get there quickly. Yesterday when I suggested that it was inappropriate to have nationalistic, pro-military worship services in Church– the place where we’re supposed to worship the risen Christ and nonviolent lover of enemies– people were pretty pissed about it. At one point I noticed... Read more
If your church is going to be holding an Independence Day celebration this year, I hope you’ll think this through and decide to skip it. Celebrating Independence Day at church is among what I believe to be the most offensive things we could do in a place that is supposed to be reserved for worshiping the God we see fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who taught his disciples to pay their taxes, and... Read more
What's worse from their perspective, is the situation is more than just the fact these "kids" aren't interested in leading the next generation of the religious right, but that they've actually switched sides. While conservative leaders were stuck in the old culture wars, those of us in progressive/emergent Christianity happily welcomed these kids into our fold (and gave them a few books to read). Today, these "kids" now make up a core block of the opposition to the very movement they were once destined to lead. Read more
The word Jesus uses in Greek is γέεννα (Gehenna), which actually means "The Valley of the Son of Hinnom". An over simplified description of Gehenna would be that it was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem; this was the place where both garbage and dead bodies would be discarded and consumed by a fire that was likely always burning. The location goes all the way back to the book of Joshua, and was a place where bad things happened-- child sacrifice, bodies were cremated, etc. Basically, imagine a dump where garbage is burned add into that the vision of burning bodies and a historical connotation of child sacrifice, and you'll see that it wasn't a very desirable place. However, it was a very literal place and the original audience of Jesus would have understood it as such. They would not have heard the word Gahenna and thought of our concept of hell-- they would have realized Jesus was talking about an actual place outside the city. Read more
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