Why I hate the word “content”

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 10:55 am By Morgan Guyton

I usually hate words whenever they become trendy, whenever it seems like people are saying them because they want others to know that they’re in the know. But the word “content” is uniquely vile to me because it’s a metaphor for everything I find disgusting about the age of social media and platform-building and branding and search engine optimization. I consider “content” to be the master-signifier of an age consumed entirely by intellectual prostitution. Content is a definitively vacuous word.... Read more

How Christians overcome the scandal of a baby God

Last updated on: December 24, 2016 at 1:13 pm By Morgan Guyton

God cannot be a baby. That’s a scandal. Because babies are not omnipotent. They’re not dispassionate unmoved movers. Plus to be a baby requires spending time in the womb of a human mother completely contingent upon her for survival which is completely not how an eternal being subsists. That’s what ruffled the feathers of Nestorius, the fourth century archbishop of Constantinople. He was deeply uncomfortable with an ancient hymn that referred to Mary as the “God-bearer.” He said the hymn... Read more

Is it now against evangelical orthodoxy to oppose Trump?

Last updated on: December 23, 2016 at 2:07 pm By Morgan Guyton

Do you remember way back three months ago when conservative evangelical figureheads like Russell Moore were saying that the 81% of evangelicals supporting Donald Trump weren’t “real” evangelicals? Christianity Today found a way to manipulate survey data to show that a majority of evangelicals were not voting for Donald Trump when they are measured “by belief, not self identity.” Well, we live in a different universe now. I don’t know to what degree Christianity Today has faced a backlash from its... Read more

Rogue One and the kingdom of God (spoiler warning!)

Last updated on: December 22, 2016 at 1:27 pm By Morgan Guyton

Spoiler alert! Everybody dies in the end. It’s true about all forms of life in general and it’s true about Rogue One, the new Star Wars film I saw last weekend. The thing that distinguishes Rogue One from most other Star Wars films is its willingness to kill off protagonists with whom the audience has built a relationship (well, somewhat of a relationship). Of course, they have to kill everybody off to account for the characters’ absence in the subsequent... Read more

Do you hear what I hear? (An AR-15 Christmas)

Last updated on: December 21, 2016 at 1:07 pm By Morgan Guyton

[A guest post by Darlene O’Dell] I was driving through my home state of South Carolina over the Thanksgiving weekend and passed a billboard with the words “Do You Hear What I Hear” written above a picture of a semi-automatic rifle, an AR-15 with a suppressor to moderate the sound. I was sickened by the juxtaposition of a Christmas song that called for peace—that talked about a child who would bring goodness to the world—with an assault rifle designed to kill... Read more

Sowing mustard seeds at the most secular college campus in the South

Last updated on: December 14, 2016 at 10:04 pm By Morgan Guyton

Most private schools in the south are Christian or at least started out Christian. Tulane is different. Though Paul Tulane, the founding benefactor, was Presbyterian, Tulane from the beginning has always been a secular institution. It draws the vast majority of its students from outside Louisiana, largely from the northeast and midwest. Students seem to come to Tulane for two main reasons: because they want to change the world or because they want to party. It is a work hard, play hard... Read more

Decolonizing Christianity with Alicia Crosby and AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez

Last updated on: December 13, 2016 at 10:45 am By Morgan Guyton

Today on Crackers and Grape Juice, we shared an interview I did with Alicia Crosby and AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez who both participated in the Standing Rock gathering last month. They shared powerful testimony about what it’s like to be in a community that truly prays without ceasing. It was a huge learning experience for everything to be understood as part of the “ceremony” of life within indigenous spirituality. We discussed how to be present within that kind of space as Christians who... Read more

God’s wrath is the salvation of the oppressed

Last updated on: December 7, 2016 at 10:19 am By Morgan Guyton

“Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:4 is part of the traditional scripture reading for the season of Advent. This verse tells us strangely that God’s “vengeance” and “terrible recompense” are good news. They are a reason not to be afraid. In fact, according to this verse, God’s people are saved through his wrath, not from his wrath. How can this be? Throughout the Bible, God’s wrath is his... Read more

If you want to kill a black man with impunity

Last updated on: December 4, 2016 at 3:08 pm By Morgan Guyton

If you want to kill a black man with impunity… You don’t need a badge anymore. The black man doesn’t need to have a gun; He doesn’t even have to throw a punch; He doesn’t need to be running towards you; He doesn’t even have to be facing you; He doesn’t need to be shouting; He doesn’t even have to be standing up; He doesn’t need to be high; He doesn’t even need to have a criminal record. Because every... Read more

What if they’re the ones who know Jesus better than we do?

Last updated on: December 3, 2016 at 11:47 am By Morgan Guyton

What if they’re the ones who know Jesus better than we do? What if they have a better name for him or her or they? What if we crucified Jesus when we took their land And burned their trees down And killed their buffalo And defiled their water? See, we know better than to say that water is life Because Jesus has living water and it’s spiritual; Water is just a metaphor for something that’s eternal Which things in this... Read more