wearing soiled gloves and grimey coats that stink of maddog and night-train, on a cold october night, we can see our firey breath. we’re 12 scruffy long-beards huddled round a barrel in the alley behind the oddfellows hall on pearl st. 4 of us used to have crew cuts and still have tattoos of eagles, globes, and anchors on our arms. 5 of us need psychotropics and counseling — but don’t have anyone to prescribe them. a newspaper blows our... Read more
I recently realized that kid’s birthday takes place in the same week as National Coming Out Day — Oct. 11th. It dawned on me that even though he’s presenting cues that he’s probably straight, that I want him to know that I will love him just as much no matter what sexual orientation he lands upon as he grows. He knows about “LGBTQ” and that I’m the pastor of a “Reconciling” ministry and he’s had a gay man and a... Read more
You’re a progressive Christian? So you’re a liberal Democrat right? Not so fast. Sometimes words that seem similar have little to do with each other. The chances for confusion increase especially in the case of heteronyms (words that sound the same and spelled the same, but have multiple meanings). The bear had to bear the burden of having to hail a cab to escape the hail in order to bail out her friend who was charged with bailing a swamped... Read more
It’s an election year in the U.S. and and since Christians comprise the majority of the electorate, it is largely Christians who will determine the winners of those elections — and the direction that our nation takes. How, and whether, we vote matters. I’ve long since given up aspirations of running for elected office, but I am an engaged citizen and I feel called to share how Christian values and perspectives inform politics and social policy. The following is a... Read more
There’s a growing movement among disaffected emergent evangelicals and disheartened progressive Christians — “Outlaw Preachers.” They’re an unofficial group, they’re a Facebook page, some of them know about others who are kindred spirits, some think they’re all alone. What they share in common is how they are treated by the religious powers that be; i.e. they’re treated like the rejected freaks on the famed “Island of Misfit Toys” in the Rudolph movie. That’s okay, they’re in good company. Many of the individuals behind... Read more
It’s a sad day in Colorado. Our collective hearts hurt. I didn’t want to blog today. Blogging in response to everything that happens in the news can come across as knee-jerk, reactionary, self-serving, and exploitive. We’re called to “pray without ceasing” — not to blog without ceasing. Sometimes reverent silence is what is needed. But I’ve been asked for a response to what just happened. So, I’m not writing a blog. I’m providing a Public Service Announcement: 1. The single... Read more
Once again I left the freaking hot, dry, arid, climes of my home in Boulder, CO to head into the freaking, hot humid ones of the deep south to attend the 2nd annual Wild Goose Festival at the Shakori Hills Campgrounds south of Durham, NC. And, once again, I was enlivened, enriched, inspired, and renewed. While it’s an arts and music infused gathering of kindred spirits, it’s more than a “progressive Christian Woodstock” — it’s evidence of a great awakening.... Read more
It’s been said that “the micro is the macro.” If you look at something in particular, you are looking at a microcosm of things that are strikingly similar on a larger scale. The state of North Carolina is a specific state that may be said to portray the United States as a whole. I could of course point out examples of that state’s gorgeous and diverse geographic beauty, its gorgeous and diverse flora and fauna; and its gorgeous and diverse... Read more
A pastoral letter to the United Methodist Church: My people are meeting with their people and all of those people are God’s people. The United Methodist Church’s General Conference is being held this week in Tampa, FL and lay and clergy delegates of many stripes and persuasions are engaging in “holy conferencing”– and unfortunately of a lot of realpolitiking too. The delegates were elected to represent United Methodists in each of the “Annual Conferences” (regions of the country and the... Read more
In yo face Devil! Take that forces of evil! Look whose laughing now! Ding Dong the witch is dead! We fart in your general direction! Sike! … Such has become the way that many of the world’s Christians have come to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. We’ve allowed the ways of the world to infuse our beliefs and we end up fighting fire with fire. Employing the world’s ways against it. Once our religion became the official religion of the... Read more
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