The Official Blog of Benjamin L. Corey
I’ve got two words for you: you’re welcome. (this is spectacularly horrible and funny, you must watch!) I hope this help to get you in the Christmas spirit! Ben Read more
I’ve got two words for you: you’re welcome. (this is spectacularly horrible and funny, you must watch!) I hope this help to get you in the Christmas spirit! Ben Read more
Well folks, it’s that time of year again. Soon our stockings will be hung by the chimney with care (something the Corey family did the day before Thanksgiving), gifts will be wrapped and placed beneath the tree, Christmas cheer will fill the air, and our Facebook news feeds will begin to be clogged with posts about “Keeping Christ in Christmas”. Ugh. It happens every year. This year, it looks like even Uncle Si is getting in on the action. Back... Read more
Phil Wyman is perhaps the most interesting pastor in America. He might not think so, but this is my blog and I can say things like that. During my first semester in seminary I read an article about Phil and how he moved to Salem, Massachusetts to plant a church that would befriend witches, atheists, and other interesting people. Phil was given a grant from his denomination to come to Salem and start the church, but was ultimately kicked out... Read more
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” – Eph 5:21 Looking back on my life, there are a few days that I’d prefer to forget. One such day was a weekend in November 1998, when I met the woman who’d later become my father’s wife. I was living in Germany at the time, and my Dad invited me to meet up with he and his new girlfriend for a long weekend in Athens, so I flew down and... Read more
The most offensive children’s toy ever made? This might be it. I guess kids are never too young to teach them that God is ready to smite them with military-grade weapons. I’m hoping this was just a joke and never made it to the market. Whether it was real or a joke, this toy still lines up with the religious ideology of too many people. Instead, may we remember Psalm 103: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,... Read more
Adoption is a hot issue in American Evangelicalism, and while rates of international adoption have drastically declined recently, I don’t think a culture of adoption is going anywhere, anytime soon. Since November is National Adoption Month, I wanted to take some time to explore some aspects of adoption– for families thinking about adopting, who have adopted, or who know someone thinking of adopting. In the past decade, adoption has become a hallmark of Evangelical Christianity in the United States. On... Read more
This past Sunday, as soon as we were finished with church, my wife and I left town. Sunday marked our 6th anniversary, and we hadn’t really been away together since our second year of marriage. Life, has a way of taking over. With a never-ending, one-two-punch of stressful life events, we knew that we needed to get away if only for short period. So, we split for a few days. One of the great parts about living in New England,... Read more
The counter cultural message of Jesus invites us to embrace a life of total non-violence, and to follow him. If we insist on participating in violence or violent social systems, Jesus contends that this will have the potential to place us on the receiving end, of the very tool we use. Here’s a great example of what Jesus taught when he said: “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword”. As reported by the Telegraph, Syrian rebels... Read more
Recently my Patheos colleague, Dr. Marcus Borg, wrote a piece entitled “What is the Gospel?“, which invited a much needed discussion in regards to the nature of the Gospel of Jesus. The question of “why is the message of Jesus good news?” is perhaps one of the most worthy questions in theology to wrestle with, so I welcome the question and dialogue on the subject. Dr. Borg’s piece correctly points out that the Gospel of Jesus has, over time, been... Read more
In a piece I published yesterday, (Study Shows: Reading Your Bible Often Makes You More Liberal), we took a look at a study I read the other day which showed the more often people read their Bible, the more liberal/progressive they become. (In yesterday’s article I used the term “liberal” but in today’s I’m using the term “progressive” since that’s what I identify as). Looking back on my own journey out of fundamentalist thinking and into a Christianity that is... Read more
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