The seventh chapter of my book How Jesus Saves the World From Us is about Christian orthodoxy. I gave it the title “Communion Not Correctness,” because the ultimate purpose of having orthodox Christian theology is to gain the deepest possible communion with God, not just to have correct answers. In my book, I used the metaphor of a blues open jam to describe the healthiest understanding of orthodoxy. Here’s an excerpt from that chapter. My favorite blues bar in North... Read more
A couple of weeks ago in Austin, I got to talk about my book on a live podcast event with Shane Blackshear for his podcast Seminary Dropout. You should definitely subscribe to his podcast! We covered a lot of ground in scripture including the Garden of Eden, Jesus’ battles with the Pharisees, God’s whirlwind speech at the end of the book of Job, and a whole lot more. We also talked about the way that orthodoxy is like playing improvisationally... Read more
For the past week, I’ve been haunted by a moment that occurred during some dead time before my speaking event in New York City last weekend. I was at a Presbyterian church in Riverdale, the wealthiest part of the Bronx that doesn’t look anything like the rest of New York City, and most of the audience were older African American women. I was feeling super-awkward to be the young white guy giving a presentation about why (my white evangelical) Christianity... Read more
You know that we’re the only real democracy; Other countries are corrupt; They don’t have tap water you can drink; They don’t have interstate highways; They don’t have supermarkets; They don’t have air conditioning. You know that we’re the only country that has real laws; All the cops are rogue in other countries; They set up roadblocks for no reason; They beat filthy people in filthy, broken streets; They make their money collecting bribes; If you can’t pay, they throw... Read more
One of the tragedies of our civil war in United Methodism has been the bifurcation of the terms “orthodox” and “inclusive” according to whether one opposes or supports LGBT inclusion in the church. Both sides are operating with a caricature of the other. Does supporting orthodoxy mean that you’re innately pharisaic? Does supporting LGBT inclusion mean that you no longer have a coherent gospel? A recent Confessing Movement newsletter asked “What is the gospel?” So I wanted to take a... Read more
In our latest podcast on Crackers & Grape Juice, we respond to the question in a recent Confessing Movement newsletter: “What is the gospel?” As is often the case, I was put in the strange position of defending the conservative evangelicals. As much as I critique them, they are my people. I think Jason, Teer, and I all want to see a robust Christ-centered gospel at the center of United Methodism. Too often, United Methodists think that being nice is... Read more
At our joint book event this weekend, Liz Edman read a passage from her book Queer Virtue that makes a powerful analogy between the story of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac and the relationship between the church and queer people. God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham unquestioningly prepares to do just that. The dramatic tension builds and builds as we wait to see whether Abraham is actually going to do this dreadful thing. At the very last moment, with Abraham... Read more
Today was the big day. I got to have a public conversation with Liz Edman, the author of Queer Virtue, at Riverdale Presbyterian Church. We made a super low-fi video recording with the pastor’s iPad and uploaded it to Facebook Live on my profile. So if you’d like to take a look, two embedded videos are below. Unfortunately the second video cuts out after 35 minutes. This first video is both of us introducing the basic concepts of our books.... Read more
It’s clear that Mark Yaconelli is a spiritual director from his storytelling. He does with his life what my spiritual directors have always told me to do with my life. He makes moments sacred. The stories in Yaconelli’s book The Gift of Hard Things describe hard situations that mostly aren’t hard enough to qualify as official tragedies. But they are situations that cause pain and disappointment in which the gift of God’s presence is found. One story I could really relate... Read more
I stumbled across a scripture that I’ve been meditating on this week. The Ferguson Declaration linked to a passage from Matthew 24. It’s one of Jesus’ apocalyptic discourses and it had a very fascinating thing to say about false prophets. Here are two verses: “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:11-12). How do we know who is a false prophet? They make... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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