When my heart was “strangely warmed”

Last updated on: May 24, 2017 at 11:25 am By Morgan Guyton

On May 24th, 1738, John Wesley attended a Moravian church gathering on Aldersgate Street in London. While Martin Luther’s preface to Romans was being read, he felt his heart being “strangely warmed” and he received the sense of complete assurance of his salvation. This event has been dubbed Wesley’s “evangelical conversion,” even though he had already been ordained as an Anglican priest. It’s an event that I’ve often felt some ambivalence about as an evangelical in a mainline denomination where... Read more

7 Things AA Taught Me About Salvation

Last updated on: September 22, 2017 at 12:54 pm By Morgan Guyton

I would argue that what AA calls "recovery" is what Christian salvation was supposed to be about all along. So I wanted to share seven insights AA has given me about salvation. Read more

When God sent us an angel named Jay

Last updated on: May 15, 2017 at 7:39 pm By Morgan Guyton

I met him in the lounge of what Tulane calls the O, where Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Gender and Sexual Diversity are located. I had gone there to share leftover chocolate chip cookies from our weekly NOLA Wesley lunch. He was wearing pink spandex and a pink shirt and a pink hat. After we’d introduced ourselves, he said almost immediately, “I’ve decided to stop drinking so I’m looking for some new friends and a church to belong... Read more

Why would anti-racist training be threatening to a white seminary professor?

Last updated on: May 15, 2017 at 7:54 am By Morgan Guyton

“Of course, so-called anti-racism is anti-intellectual. It is also totalitarian and genocidally racist.” That’s definitely the wackiest comment I received in response to my open letter to Paul Griffiths about his meltdown over being invited to an anti-racism seminar. One characteristic of the post-truth era is the belief that outrageous assertions can reshape reality. I don’t think this commenter really believes that anti-racism causes people to commit genocide. But if he and and thousands of other trolls express themselves hyperbolically... Read more

An open letter to Dr. Griffiths regarding the Duke Divinity crisis

Last updated on: May 9, 2017 at 10:40 am By Morgan Guyton

Dear Dr. Griffiths, One of my deepest regrets from my time as a Duke Divinity student was that I never took a course with you. Two of my favorite theologians I have discovered in the past several years after seminary are Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs Von Balthasar. Von Balthasar in particular can be difficult for me to comprehend fully and I would have benefited from your guidance. I’m writing you because my heart is broken by the dirty... Read more

Why white people should stop celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Last updated on: May 5, 2017 at 5:23 pm By Morgan Guyton

One of the most transformative moments of my life happened in Mexico. My friend Kevin and I had gone backpacking there the summer of 1998 after my second year in college because it was cheap and it seemed dangerous enough to be a great adventure. We met an Argentinian in a hostel in Mexico City who told us that he could introduce us to the Zapatistas, the cool new revolutionary group that had staged an uprising in response to NAFTA... Read more

No, there aren’t two United Methodisms

Last updated on: May 8, 2017 at 2:10 pm By Morgan Guyton

It’s always easiest to imagine humanity existing in a single dualistic contrast. I do this a lot. There are two types of white people… There are two types of Christians… Etc. And it’s bullshit every time that I do it. It definitely makes it easier to write think-pieces. But the world doesn’t happen in binaries. There are many layers to our disagreements within United Methodism. We disagree about what we’re disagreeing about. But I think it’s very unhelpful to see... Read more

United Methodism Was Designed for Relational Discipleship Not Ideological Takeover

Last updated on: May 5, 2017 at 11:34 am By Morgan Guyton

The United Methodist Judicial Council ruled this past weekend that Karen Oliveto was elected illegally as a bishop because she is a married lesbian. But her election and consecration could not be overthrown because she was an elder in good standing when she was elected. In fact, she served her first church before the Book of Discipline was modified to prohibit gay ordination in 1984. Now the Western Jurisdiction that elected her bishop is tasked with “punishing” her for their decision... Read more

Jesus is illegal

Last updated on: May 1, 2017 at 4:55 pm By Morgan Guyton

I’m going to be marching today with a group of immigrants whom some people call “illegal aliens.” The United Methodist Church just declared one of its bishops to be illegal. So I thought I would write about the way that Jesus is illegal. I don’t mean just in the sense that he broke the rules by healing on the Sabbath, eating and drinking with prostitutes and tax collectors, and engaging in property destruction in the Jerusalem temple courtyard. I mean that... Read more

Jesus’ cross shows that divine authority comes from the margins

Last updated on: May 3, 2017 at 6:55 am By Morgan Guyton

There’s been a storm in white evangelical Christian twitter recently. Tish Warren, an Anglican priest, wrote a piece in Christianity Today asking who’s in charge of the Christian blogosphere. She focused on the way that popular Christian writer and blogger Jen Hatmaker changed her stance on the gays and wondered what tradition she gets her authority from. While conservatives like Warren think of authority in terms of tradition, the authority I understand to be central to Christianity is the authority... Read more