Make us your flesh; let your love drip down like oil that is messy & smelly so that every inch of our skin will be touched, and we will know your love is sticky and sweet and cannot be wiped off by shame or fear or all the verbal spears of the enemy. Cover us with your wings; be our blanket; be our lover, for you kiss better than we know how, and you know where we need to be... Read more
Holiness is one of the most important and controversial aspects of John Wesley’s 300 year old movement that United Methodism is a part of. I think it would be fair and accurate to say that conservative United Methodists cannot accept the legitimacy of gay marriage because of their understanding of holiness. I would further posit that our real debate is about the nature and purpose of holiness. And I would contend that any account of Wesleyan holiness must deal principally... Read more
Donald Trump would not be fixated on building a wall on the southern border of the United States if this were not the issue that won him the presidency and gave him the most visceral connection to his supporter base of which the most predominant demographic bloc are white evangelicals. So it doesn’t seem far-fetched to ponder how white evangelical theology builds walls. A wall expresses a commitment to an uncomplicated view of reality. The innocence on one side of... Read more
No, I’m not going to say Donald Trump is the anti-Christ. Because I don’t believe that the Bible’s role when it speaks about an anti-Christ is to predict future events. But I think the term can still be useful. I would use it to signify the greatest adversary the church faces in a particular age. And I think the ideology Jerry Falwell Jr. laid out in a recent quote captures that adversary quite perfectly. Why have Americans been able to... Read more
We took a risk when NOLA Wesley started the Labyrinth cafe. Meaning we did something that involved a high likelihood of failure. That’s what a risk is. And that’s what all the higher-ups in the church encouraged us to do. Risk-taking mission is one of the five practices of fruitful congregations according to Bishop Robert Schnase. Dr. Elaine Heath told our Louisiana Conference to “fail our way forward.” The greatest risk is that our funding will dry up before we... Read more
Fred Hartley’s Dare to Be Different was one of the books that defined my evangelical teenager years. It indoctrinated me with the idea that that the most important thing about being a Christian is to be different from non-believers. And to be fired up about that difference. The gist of the book and others I read like it by people like Michael W. Smith was that there were three basic ways I was supposed to be different: no drugs or... Read more
Jesus is God’s rebellion against humanity. That statement is as offensive as the real Christmas was before the privileged elites of the world turned it into a lawn decoration and cute children’s pageant. How can God be a rebel? God’s in charge (like we’re in charge). Our God is a God of order (who endorses the way things are currently ordered). Rebels are evil by definition (because we’ve never had to rebel to get our needs met). Wouldn’t our world... Read more
Yesterday my friend and mentor Brian Zahnd got a lot of flak for tweeting about his church having both ICE agents and undocumented immigrants in its pews. The same day, dozens of members of the CityWell church in my hometown of Durham, NC were arrested for blocking an ICE van when ICE agents captured a church member who had been living in sanctuary in the church for almost a year. So what does it look like to be a faithful... Read more
I debated whether to call this a love letter or an open letter. Love letter feels like a very southern white evangelical thing to call something that involves critical reflection and wrestling with concerns. But open letter feels too adversarial. We write open letters to celebrities with big platforms who might not engage us in direct conversation otherwise. If you’ve been active in ex-evangelical Twitter lately, I imagine you already know what I’m going to write about. I’ve watched two... Read more
Last weekend was the first-ever global legislative assembly for the Wesleyan Covenant Association, the United Methodist traditionalist caucus group. It was for all practical purposes, the inauguration of a new denomination. At their assembly, they adopted a resolution saying they would be “forced to leave” the United Methodist Church if the One Church Plan which allows for regional LGBTQ inclusion is adopted at the February 2019 General Conference. There has been talk from traditionalists for at least the past decade... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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