Storied Theology
"What is God?"--the wrong question that gives us the wrong idea. Read more
"What is God?"--the wrong question that gives us the wrong idea. Read more
Traditionalist Christians cannot embody the love that God has for gay people. Read more
There's one thing that every Christian believes. Including me. Read more
Abomination to the Egyptians The idea of “abominations” has deep roots in Israel’s story. Back before Israel had any laws. Before the Ten Commandments. Before the Exodus. Before they had been given any rules about what to eat and what not to eat. The idea (and the word) first appears when Joseph is Pharaoh’s righthand man and his brothers come and find him. Joseph eats alone. Joseph’s brothers are then served on their own. And the Egyptians eat with neither—because... Read more
Tour de Awesome Blogsphere confessional: I have a total, complete, 100% man-crush on David Dark. From the time I first took in hand Everyday Apocalypse and read about the epiphany he experienced while watching Raising Arizona, I knew that I was in the presence of someone through whose eyes I wanted to see the world. That snippet summarizes what I loved, cover to cover, in Dark’s latest book, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious. I would not call Dark a religionist so... Read more
At a conference in November I had what somehow became “post-Christian day.” It consisted of a series of conversations with friends who once were committed Christians but no longer found that faith to be compelling. None of my friends is hostile to Christianity. For the most part they find that life works just as well if not better for them without it. But in one conversation an old friend gently probed me: what is the faith that I hold and... Read more
The Chaos We Created Just when we thought that the presidential primaries were an opportunity for us to take a good long look in the mirror to ask who on earth we are that we have created such viable political candidates, Justice Anton Scalia died and turned the floodlights on. Surely nobody was surprised that Donal Trump said that the senate should not confirm an Obama appointment to replace Scalia. “Delay. Delay. Delay,” was his advice at Saturday night’s debate.... Read more
“Bring Out Your Dead” It seems that I have inadvertently staged a reenactment of one of the greatest scenes in cinematographic history—that incomparable moment in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when a man with a cart and gong is rounding up the plague-killed bodies. “Bring out your dead.” “Here’s one.” “Nine pence.” “I’m not dead.” … “He says he’s not dead.” “Yes he is.” “I’m not.” Utter perfection. My particular rendition referred to another plague: the plague of the... Read more
Many of us have come through Ash Wednesday services and are now full on into Day 2 of Lenten fasts. As Aric Clark and I were working through the Lectionary texts for this week, we were struck by how downright unLenten they seemed to be. We read of gifts given to God that come from an abundant harvest (Deuteronomy 26:1-11). We read about confessing the resurrected Christ as Lord over all (Romans 10:8b-13). And we read a psalm that seems to... Read more
I’m Totally a Lent Expert Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. My earliest memory of Ash Wednesday is of my English teacher coming to school with ashes on her forehead my senior year. Someone asked her what religion she was and she playfully deflected with some comment about tree frog worship. (No, she wasn’t being serious. Yes, you’re right, she was Episcopalian. But really, she’s much more traditional than I am, as I now know, so don’t... Read more
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