When 21st-century Western Christians take anything in the Bible at face value, it’ll take a miracle to not distort or misunderstand it. How many miracles are there in the Bible? Many? Few? Is there a definite number? Yes. There is an actual number, and you can know it, for sure. Are you familiar with a mirage? Something that only appears real or possible, but in fact, isn’t it? Technically a mirage is an optical illusion. When the atmospheric conditions are... Read more
Biblical prophecy and predestination concern the forthcoming, not the far future like in popular American Christian imagination I love me some Stephen King books and movies. Always have, at least ever since being brutally baptized into his books and films. Once, at 8 years old, teenagers pounced on me and forced me to watch “Creepshow.” I couldn’t sleep for a week after, because I imagined Nathan Grantham visiting my room to get his Father’s Day Cake. I had a vivid imagination.... Read more
Jeremiah raped by God may sound blasphemous, but this metaphor is Scriptural. Things were getting better all the time for Israelites by summer, 594 BCE. Though many were exiled in Babylon, things were looking up, or so it seemed. True, Nebuchadnezzar had squashed a coup the previous January. But Zedekiah, deposed ruler of Judah, was positive. He desired to form a coalition of Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and the armies of Tyre and Sidon. The mission? Utterly destroy Babylon’s king. The... Read more
Chadwick Boseman is dead at 43, leaving us a legacy of heroes reminding us that black lives matter. The just warrior-king, T’Challa of Wakanda, is gone. Chadwick Boseman, 43, died yesterday from Stage 4 Colon Cancer. He was home with family. Our hearts are broken and our thoughts are with Chadwick Boseman’s family. Your legacy will live on forever. Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/YQMrEJy90x — Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) August 29, 2020 Chadwick Boseman’s Quiet Battle People saw Boseman looking terribly thin... Read more
Is Donald Trump the Antichrist, or does the book called Revelation say nothing about either person? Donald Trump, the Antichrist? Things are pretty bad. Can we possibly have a POTUS more disastrous than Donald Trump? What a chilling consideration to make! Terrifying to imagine it, yes, I do think that we can have worse. In that direction, maybe we could take Ann Coulter’s recent nomination of Kyle Rittenhouse. He could perhaps out-Trump Trump. But be that as it may, this country... Read more
Apocalypse then meant something, and Revelation, as well as any other Scripture, must first be read according to this literal sense. How differently we read Apocalypse these days compared with how it’s first audience read it. Apocalypse then? It was understood to be about the sky and it’s denizens, an ancient Israelite astronomic report. Apocalypse now, read today by U.S. Christians? In contrast, it can mean anything, especially about current American events and persons. We are clueless as to what was... Read more
Baptism and Eucharist should be more than using correct verbal formulas. COVID-19 continues to ravage 2020. In the United States, a would-be dictator works to render meaningless every Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebration. A related eviction situation begins to explode, widening an economic disaster that dwarfs the Great Depression. Millions more may be starving soon in our cruel and greedy world where so many already die of hunger despite abundance. Vile racism is ingrained in our U.S. social... Read more
Jesus, Master of Insults, was not the sweet, polite, gentle figure we imagine in parishes and Sunday school. For my next several posts, I will be responding to my fellow bloggers and their takes on this past Sunday’s Gospel reading of the Canaanite Woman and Jesus, Matthew 15:21-28. I also posted on the Gospel recently, here—Jesus Loses to a Foreign Woman. I invite everyone to enjoy the excellent writing of my Patheos friends, Dr. Edwin Woodruff Tait of Light in the West and Jennifer Fitz of Sticking the Corners.... Read more
Trads claim that recognizing the starving poverty of Galilean peasants Mary and Jesus is “hateful heresy.” To paraphrase Doctor Amp (aka Lawrence Jacoby), the Trads are at it again. They’ve been triggered by my recent post on the real Mary. To them, it’s heresy to think of Mary and Jesus and starving Galilean villagers—which is precisely what they were. This is the fruit of Docetism in USA-Catholicism, folks. Then we mix in our racism and classicism. At the end, we... Read more
Master of arguments and insults, Jesus loses at his own game, beaten by a foreign woman. Jesus loses too, folks. That’s okay! He’s not Mister Spock, Sherlock Holmes, Commander Data, Doctor House, or some other ridiculous American cultural idol from fiction. Jesus is real. The Incarnation is real. To be human, you have to be able to learn. To be able to learn, you have to be able to lose. In true incarnational fashion, Jesus lost. And he lost messily.... Read more
Messy Inspirations
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