This is a sponsored post and part of the Patheos Book Club. Check out the Book Club for more posts on this book and for responses from the author. Years ago, I received a manuscript in the mail from my dear friends at Jossey-Bass. It was in the midst of a glut of books in the suddenly popular sub-genre of religious memoir (think Kathleen Norris, Anne Lamott, and Lauren Winner), and it was a book by a guy who had... Read more
My friend, Lillian Daniel, a UCC pastor and advocate for the downtrodden, has written a post that’s become a meme. It is snarkily titled, “Spiritual but Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me.” Money Quote: Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn’t interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life... Read more
A new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute has some positive findings for those us who hope for marriage equality, gay ordination, and the like: There is at least a 20-point generation gap between Millennials (age 18 to 29) and seniors (age 65 and older) on every public policy measure in the survey concerning rights for gay and lesbian people. The generation gap in support for same-sex marriage is striking and persists even among conservative political and religious... Read more
Yes, there are several unreasonable — even unsavory — aspects to orthodox Christianity. On a regular basis, we eat a ritualistic meal that we pretend it flesh and blood. We venerate a symbol of torture and the death penalty. Maybe I’ve just been acclimated to those parts of my faith. I’m sure that to a non-believer, they seem just as weird as the weirdness of Mormonism. But to me, Mormonism reaches a different level of weirdness, and it’s one that... Read more
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This is part of a series based on chapters four and five of my new book, The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement, in which I look at the ecclesiology of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann and put it into conversation with the ecclesial practices of the emerging church movement (ECM). Part One Part Two Part Three Moltmann has some pretty specific suggestions about what the church should look like. The church can best be what he... Read more
Nadia, one of the instructors at this fall’s Church Planters Academy, has been interviewed by Duke’s Faith & Leadership about planting a church: Q: For those clergy who want to be doing what you’re doing, what do they need to know? That they should figure out who their people are and try to be their pastor. Older folks from the church will say, “What do young adults want? What do they want so that we can do it?” I’m like,... Read more
Following up on yesterday’s post, I’m starting an occasional series called “Why I’m Not…” Here’s the first installment. I have a lot of doubts about God, even about the existence of God. I am blessed, and cursed, with a highly rationalistic faith. I’ve written here before about my doubts, and I even expressed them in a sideways manner at Fuller Seminary this winter, in a way that got me in some hot water. This week, I’ve read a thoughtful post... Read more
Andrew Brown has written for the Guardian, Why I’m Not a Catholic: At the moment, Catholic sexual teaching is like a broken computer program. It needs to be rewritten from scratch in a better language. But Catholic social teaching, and the attempts to produce an economics centred around the needs of humans, rather than of money, look like the only thought-through alternatives to unbridled market capitalism – and certainly the only ones which have a chance of widespread popular support.... Read more
For those of you not so keen on ebooks, I’ve got my latest book now available as a paperback: The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement. If you happen to be a student at a seminary, divinity school, Bible college, Christian college, etc., you can ask your librarian to buy it for the school. Read more
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