I’m a bit ashamed of the Church. Oh, don’t get me wrong – plenty of churches do lots and lots of brilliant things. Frankly, were it not for the missional efforts of the Church, I hate to even think of how far under some people would have slipped. The church where I serve, for example, is a small church, but we manage to feed a few hundred people a month. We’re talking about people who have slipped through the charity... Read more

“It’s been a long, slow, painful death.” So, begins a widely distributed article by Bob Burney. In it, he predicts/acknowledges the death of a denomination, specifically the PCUSA. Why is it dead? Well, clearly you’ve not be following the religious news. It is dead because it loves homosexuals. Admittedly, even though Mr. Burney opens the article saying “the church has abandoned its denominational commitment to traditional marriage,” he does say that, “The issue here is not homosexuality. The core of... Read more

The Church is burning down. It is a slow, smoldering burn to be sure, but it is burning down nonetheless. As it burns, those who belong have busied themselves painting over the soot stained walls, putting a new finish over the already depleted structure, in hopes that they will somehow protect the outdated construction that has strayed so far from the Architect’s plan. As the average attendance and membership of mainline protestant churches continue to slowly spiral down, we try... Read more

If you don’t know already, it would seem that the beginning of the end has happened. It wasn’t the end all be all of endings, at least not in the way we were told to expect it. May 21 came and went and the only thing we had to show for it was a slue of jokes about Judgment Day (including many from yours truly). Some people felt like all the jokes were in poor taste and mean spirited. I... Read more

Well, by the time I post this is will be right about 6pm EST. So, either the Big Exit didn’t happen, I was Left Behind or you are reading this postmortem. Whatever it is, I thought I’d help out my preacher friends with a few  lines for tomorrow’s service. The Rapture Happened: “Well, as you can see, we are missing a few people today.” “The question to ask yourself isn’t, “why did I get left behind?”, so much as, “why... Read more

I fully and completely believe that God created us all equally in the divine image. In each of us is a reflection of our Creator. None are more capable of living into that reflection, none are less capable. That is exactly what I hear in the creation stories of Genesis when they tell us that humans were formed in God’s image and that God breathed life into humans. To be human is to be formed by God, in the image... Read more

Jesus is Coming! Look busy. A fellow by the name of Harold Camping is claiming that he has biblically calculated the Day of Judgment…. and people are believing him. It doesn’t hurt that this civil engineer happens to have 66 radio stations to help promote his hypothesis (honestly, I’m a little surprised he hasn’t either bought or sold a station to avoid that number). The interesting thing is, people believe him even though he has been wrong about this before.... Read more

As it became apparent that the President had called an unexpected address to the nation to announce the death of Osama bin Laden, social networks erupted with jubilation. Shortly after that, ground zero and grounds in front of the White House, with their 9/11 connections, became gathering places for the raucous crowds. For a night, so many of this mostly divided nation were united… over a death. Not just united, joyfully so. “He’s won,” I thought. One of bin Laden’s... Read more

(Mark is a member of Salem Presbytery, PC(USA), which will be voting Saturday, April 9 on Amendment 10-A to “The Book of Order” concerning ordination standards. [UPDATE: 10-A passed in Salem Presbytery: 186-107-2. UPDATE #2: PC(USA) passed Amendment 10 making it possible for local governing bodies to ordain LGBTQ members.)  Here’s the thing. There are gay ministers. Always have been, always will be. Surprisingly, at least if you listen to the Anti-Gay Minister Movement (yes, that’s a name I just made... Read more