{"id":2425,"date":"2013-10-29T08:40:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T14:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=2425"},"modified":"2013-10-29T08:43:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T14:43:27","slug":"mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Driscoll&#8217;s &#8220;Pansy-Post&#8221;: Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2013\/10\/Driscoll-Rages.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2432\" title=\"Driscoll Rages\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2013\/10\/Driscoll-Rages-300x103.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"103\"><\/a>I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll\u2019s antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get emails and comments telling me I should just let it go. The problem is that I can\u2019t just let it go, because I think Mark Driscoll represents something truly dangerous to the heart of the gospel. Driscoll is distorting Christianity and he has a huge, devoted following. Like it or not, Driscoll is impacting men in my church, and in my community with this message. An alternative narrative has to be shared, and the deep issues with Driscoll\u2019s narrative and theology need to be exposed.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Merritt at RNS, has been working a similar angle from a much larger platform. In recent weeks, Merritt has been shining a spotlight on Driscoll\u2019s behavior. He\u2019s completely fair with Driscoll (no strawman tactics), which I appreciate, but he\u2019s drawing a bead on the essence of Driscoll\u2019s bad behavior and bad theology.<\/p>\n<p>Recently <a href=\"http:\/\/jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com\/2013\/10\/23\/controversial-pastor-mark-driscoll-says-christians-stop-infighting\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Merritt highlighted<\/a> Driscoll\u2019s decision to promote his new book in which he criticizes the church for being too confrontational, by showing up uninvited to John MacArthur\u2019s \u201cStrange Fire,\u201d conference, to confront him for being too exclusionary. Merritt followed up with an interesting piece concerning Driscoll\u2019s article confronting and dismissing the theology of Christian non-violence. Merritt\u2019s tack is good \u2013 he allowed some of the leading voices for Christian non-violence to speak up. Merritt\u2019s work is worth reading. Here are a few good pull quotes.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Shane Claiborne:<\/strong> \u201cJesus was not a pansy. Nor was Jesus \u201ca prize fighter with a tattoo down his leg, a sword in his hand, and a commitment to make someone bleed,\u201d as Mark Driscoll has contended. \u201cFight Club\u201d may have been a good movie, but it makes for really bad theology. Mark may see things like \u201ckindness, gentleness, love and peace\u201d as feminine, dainty things for pansies, but the Bible calls them the \u201cfruit of the Spirit.\u201d These are the things that God is like. We need only look at the cross to see what perfect love looks like when it stares evil in the face \u2013 love forgives, love dies, love does not kill. Jesus was not violent, and surely not passive. Jesus shows us a \u201cthird way\u201d that is neither fight nor flight. He teaches us that evil can be opposed without being mirrored, oppressors resisted without being emulated, and enemies neutralized without being destroyed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Scot McKnight<\/strong>: Pacifism isn\u2019t quietism or withdrawal or inactivity, and it isn\u2019t simple submission. Pacifism\u2019s root is connected to the peacemaking beatitude, rooted in love, and expressed when the follower of Jesus actively seeks peace. Pacifism isn\u2019t a lack of interest or non-involvement, but the hard work of seeking peace. Pacifism is non-violent resistance not non-resistance. What Jesus teaches his followers to do illustrates the sort of pacifism he advocates: turn the other cheek, surrender even more clothing, go the extra mile, lend and do not charge interest or require a payment back. Hardly the stuff of the inactive. These acts subvert the Roman system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove<\/strong>: I like Mark for his clarity. He knows what he thinks, and he makes it plain. Mark Driscoll right: murder is not the same as killing. He\u2019s making a basic moral distinction. It\u2019s part of the Old Testament law. And it\u2019s written into American law. Involuntary manslaughter in our society\u2019s criminal code is not the same as second degree murder, for example. As anyone doing time in prison can tell you, these distinctions matter.<\/p>\n<p>But his clarity also betrays his misunderstanding of Christian pacifism. He insists that Jesus \u201cis not a pansy,\u201d by which I think he means to say that Jesus does not roll over and give up in the face of evil. This is true, of course. But this is not what Christian pacifists claim. We believe, instead, that Jesus along with all the martyrs of the church exhibit the highest degree of courage when they refuse to return evil for evil. Jesus is not a pansy before Pontius Pilate. He is Christus Victor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Jesus way isn\u2019t suffering from the slightest amount of machismo or male-bravado, but it\u2019s not a pansy message. Violence is weakness. Peace is power. Vulnerability is the only way to change the world. I believe there\u2019s a much better model for manhood than the one Driscoll is pushing, and we find it in the cross of Jesus.\u00a0Here\u2019s a section on Christian non-violence from my book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Evangelical-Social-Gospel-Extremes-ebook\/dp\/B0051BISYI\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1383057187&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=an+evangelical+social+gospel%3F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>An Evangelical Social Gospel?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0I hope it will provide a little historical context to the question of non-violence:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the Sermon on the Mount Jesus advocates for a nonviolent response to evil; not that evil wouldn\u2019t be resisted, but that Christians must not resist violently. Early Christians seemed to take this teaching very seriously. There is no historical evidence that Christians served in the military before AD 170\u2013180, and after that it was exceedingly rare. Origen, an early church father, had to defend Christians against Celsus, an early opponent of Christianity who was attacking them for their lack of military service. Origen argued, \u201cYou cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers,\u201d (Against Celsus VIII.7.3). Justin Martyr wrote, \u201cwe who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ,\u201d (First Apology of Justin Martyr, ch. 39).<\/p>\n<p>All throughout the writings of the first few centuries of the church, one can find a consistent message against violence of any kind. We find these in the teachings of Justyn Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, and many others. Early Christians were prohibited from violence. Nonviolent resistance of evil was the typical teaching in the first century, and Christians were criticized for it. AfterConstantine, and more pervasively during the rise of the modern nation-state, Christian theology had to adjust its convictions in order to allow Christians to fight in wars.<\/p>\n<p>After centuries of this teaching, those who hold to the conviction of nonviolent resistance of evil have now been relegated to the station of the radical, even though their position is clearly advocated by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, and by the first few centuries of his followers. War is now considered noble in our society. [Walter] Rauschenbusch noted war had become \u201cthe supreme test of manhood and of the worth of a nation.\u201d Nonviolence is considered cowardly or na\u00efve. The theological convictions of the church have become so privatized and individualized that there is no widespread contemporary evangelical critique of the violence that is continually exercised in the name of the state. Our society has trumped the clear teachings of Jesus on nonviolence through its spiritual authority. Forget the Beatles, the nation-state is bigger than Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>This is an example of sin that is transmitted socially, and which has been significantly fueled by individualistic and privatized notions of Christianity. Those who oppose violence on principle are held in check and branded as radicals. Their voices are pressed to the margins of society. The resulting idealized view of war is actually just an idealized view of sin, which is now generally espoused by the church itself. The idealization of sin becomes the way social systems, even the church itself, can transmit and perpetuate\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll\u2019s antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get emails and comments telling me I should just let it go. The problem is that I can\u2019t just let it go, because I think Mark Driscoll represents something truly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[472,799,800,613,303,296,435],"class_list":["post-2425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-an-evangelical-social-gospel","tag-jonathan-merritt","tag-jonathan-wilson-hartgrove","tag-mark-driscoll","tag-non-violence","tag-scot-mcknight","tag-shane-claiborne"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mark Driscoll&#039;s &quot;Pansy-Post&quot;: Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll&#039;s antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Driscoll&#039;s &quot;Pansy-Post&quot;: Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll&#039;s antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-29T14:40:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-29T14:43:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2013\/10\/Driscoll-Rages-300x103.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html\",\"name\":\"Mark Driscoll's \\\"Pansy-Post\\\": Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-29T14:40:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-29T14:43:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll's antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mark Driscoll&#8217;s &#8220;Pansy-Post&#8221;: Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), &amp; An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mark Driscoll's \"Pansy-Post\": Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel","description":"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll's antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mark Driscoll's \"Pansy-Post\": Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel","og_description":"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll's antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2013-10-29T14:40:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-29T14:43:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2013\/10\/Driscoll-Rages-300x103.jpg"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html","name":"Mark Driscoll's \"Pansy-Post\": Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-29T14:40:41+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-29T14:43:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"I\u2019ve taken some flack for commenting on Mark Driscoll's antics now and then. Each time I criticize what the megachurch pastor is saying or doing, I\u00a0get","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/mark-driscolls-pansy-post-jonathan-merritt-gives-non-violence-a-platform-to-resist-the-macho-gospel.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mark Driscoll&#8217;s &#8220;Pansy-Post&#8221;: Jonathan Merritt Gives Non-Violence a Platform to Resist the Macho-Gospel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), &amp; An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}