Six ways I will never stop being evangelical

Last updated on: April 26, 2015 at 1:38 pm By Morgan Guyton

The Christian blogosphere seems to viralize two things: 1) numbered lists (five reasons why this, six bad habits of that, seven epic fail church signs, etc) and 2) anything involving the keyword “evangelical” (especially if it involves wringing your hands over what to call yourself now like a post-post-evangelical Christic shaman). Sarcastic metanarrative preface aside, I realize at times that I’m a fish out of water as a progressive evangelical in liberal mainline church culture. Mainliners don’t always get me... Read more

How to create sanctuary in our lives (with Terry Hershey)

Last updated on: April 24, 2015 at 8:53 am By Morgan Guyton

This week I’ve been reading Terry Hershey’s book Sanctuary as part of our Patheos book club roundtable. It’s about how to create sacred space, or sanctuary, in our lives. Hershey defines a sanctuary as “a place where we feel grounded, unhurried, and renewed” (xi). One of the reasons that so many people feel anxious in our culture today is because our world is so saturated with useful space that there isn’t any room for sacred space. Often our way of... Read more

Is facebook screwing bloggers or have readers’ sharing habits changed?

Last updated on: April 22, 2015 at 10:22 pm By Morgan Guyton

I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with my blog traffic. A year ago, on my self-hosted blog, I had awesome traffic and I was on an upward trajectory. Because of this, I was invited to join the Patheos Progressive blogging community. Lately, my traffic has been in a funk and I’ve noticed from my google analytics that search engines are driving the majority of my traffic even on days when I post a fresh post. Noticeably missing in... Read more

Love and the day of judgment (1 John 4:17)

Last updated on: April 21, 2015 at 9:42 pm By Morgan Guyton

1 John 4 is one of the most comforting and life-giving chapters of the whole Bible. People sometimes call it the love chapter because of its emphatic declaration in verse 8 that “whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” In my daily scripture reading this morning, I encountered a verse that had not jumped out at me before in my dozens of times reading this chapter: 1 John 4:17, which says, “Love has been perfected... Read more

Another world is possible (a shout-out to the #FightFor15 and #DivestTulane movements)

Last updated on: April 17, 2015 at 1:43 am By Morgan Guyton

During the past week, I have had the privilege of supporting two different political campaigns, the Fight for $15 movement, which seeks a living wage for fast food workers, and the Divest Tulane movement, which seeks to extract Tulane University from its investments in the fossil fuel industry. On Wednesday night, I marched with Fight for $15 as they shut down an area McDonald’s during dinner time. Throughout the week, I’ve been participating in Divest Tulane’s sit-in in the hallway... Read more

“Thank you, I’m good” (when students reject free donut holes)

Last updated on: April 13, 2015 at 11:38 am By Morgan Guyton

Every Wednesday morning, I try to convince hundreds of power-walking Tulane students to accept a free donut hole. I figured donut holes were the perfect giveaway item because they’re bite-sized and not too major a commitment. At the beginning of the year, I got five dozen doughnut holes per week, but I reduced my order to four dozen recently after a couple outings when I couldn’t get rid of all of them. The most common phrase I hear from students... Read more

When people with power do not fear God

Last updated on: April 8, 2015 at 2:18 pm By Morgan Guyton

Like many others, I watched the video of South Carolina police officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott while he was running away. For me, the most chilling part of the video was when Officer Slager stood over Mr. Scott as he was dying and said, “Put your hands behind your back” over and over, as though it was an entirely normal police procedure presumably so that he could document this verbalization in his police report. Not knowing that he was... Read more

I choose to live in a world where resurrection happens

Last updated on: April 6, 2015 at 6:27 pm By Morgan Guyton

During Lent this year, a Presbyterian minister named John Shuck posted on the Friendly Atheist blog about being a pastor despite the fact that he no longer believes in God. He shared that he doesn’t appreciate being told he’s not a Christian just because he doesn’t believe in God. In his view, God is a “symbol of myth-making and not credible as a supernatural being or force.” He views Christianity as a “culture” whose “artifacts” are “resources” to be used... Read more

Embracing godforsakenness: how Jesus’ cross saves the human community

Last updated on: April 3, 2015 at 5:51 pm By Morgan Guyton

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words that Jesus spoke on the cross possess a profound mystery. How can a man who was also God ask a question like this? Was Jesus simply reciting the opening line of Psalm 22 pro forma? Or did God the Father actually reject God the Son as part of a choreographed pageant by which the world’s sin could be paid for in good capitalist fashion? This Lent, as I was... Read more

Radical Jesus 101: Two very different ways of defining sin

Last updated on: February 18, 2015 at 2:00 pm By Morgan Guyton

I figured Ash Wednesday would be a good day to meditate upon the meaning of sin. One of the most important fault-lines in Christianity today falls between two very different ways of defining sin. It seems that most conservative Christians define sin “legalistically” as disobedience to God’s rules, while progressive Christians define sin “humanistically” as that which dehumanizes individuals and societies. This basic difference radically impacts how we understand our faith, scripture, and God’s nature. When we read the Bible looking for... Read more