Willow Creek Breaks with Exodus International

Last updated on: July 26, 2011 at 8:59 am By Tony Jones

In a move that Willow Creek is trying to downplay and Exodus International is trying to play-up, the Illinois mega-church has decided to longer partner with the ex-gay ministry. Todd Rhodes reports: Was there more to Willow’s severing the relationship than just shuffling around their partners? Could be…The church may just not have been comfortable with Exodus’ delivery methods. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve changed their views on the core subject of homosexuality. If that’s the case, it’d... Read more

More Wedding Photos

Last updated on: July 26, 2011 at 2:18 pm By Tony Jones

You asked for it. More photos of our wedding from the incomparable Huy Nguyen. Read more

NOT an Onion Headline: Help Shoot Up Juarez

Last updated on: July 25, 2011 at 5:28 pm By Tony Jones

Hey kids, have you heard of Ciudad Juárez? It’s the city just over the border from El Paso, Texas, under siege of horrific violence at the hands of drug lords. How violent? Well, glad you asked! Check out these numbers: 2008 – 1,600 homicides 2009 – 2,600 homicides 2010 – 3,075 homicides That’s 229 murders per 100,000 residents of Juárez! This year, Juárez is averaging eight homicides per day! The Juárez police force is literally under assault! Well, now you... Read more

Irony in Advertising

Last updated on: July 25, 2011 at 2:06 pm By Tony Jones

I’ve gotten some comments here about the ads that seem out of place in my right sidebar — for instance, today there’s an ad in rotation for Liberty University, whose founder used one of his final sermons to preach against me. I’m more fond of the ad for the mail-order ordination. Well, even though Patheos serves up the ads on this blog these days, your organization can still place an ad that runs exclusively on my blog. Hang around here... Read more

Disappointed with Emergent?

Last updated on: July 26, 2011 at 12:16 pm By Tony Jones

It turns out that David Fitch is disappointed with the Emergent/ing/ence Church Movement (ECM). Well, he’d better get in line. It seems that all sorts of people are disappointed in us — in the last week, I’ve read accounts on Facebook and blogs of evangelicals, liberals, mainliners, and GLBT persons who are disappointed with the ECM. Imagine my surprise, via Facebook, to discover that we had disappointed the bisexual and transgendered people of thew world. No doubt, a lot of... Read more

Iowa Needs to Get Over Itself

Last updated on: July 25, 2011 at 6:46 am By Tony Jones

Well, it seems that Michele Bachmann has added another flub to her long list of flubs. What did she do, you ask, that so irked Iowa voters? Did she say that gay persons were dropped on their heads as babies? Did she admit that President Obama is a Christian? Did she cast aspersions on Jonnie Marbles’s aim? No, she did something far more egregious: Michele Bachmann ate breakfast at the wrong diner! Joe Kimball reports at MinnPost that Bachmann spurned... Read more

Weekend Zeppelin Fun

Last updated on: July 23, 2011 at 1:29 pm By Tony Jones

Here’s an awesome YouTube mash-up of “Black Dog“: HT: Bombi(llo) Read more

Colbert Gets Serious

Last updated on: July 22, 2011 at 2:56 pm By Tony Jones

Stephen Colbert, who happens to be the person I’d choose to spend an eternity on a deserted island with (other than Courtney and kids), has contributed to the It Gets Better Project: Read more

Cru?

Last updated on: July 22, 2011 at 9:16 am By Tony Jones

So, word comes today that Campus Crusade for Christ, long-time whipping boy in my books and on my blog (only after I was their whipping boy for a couple years in college), is changing their name to Cru. The decision, Cru announces, “was saturated in prayer.” The answer to those prayers seemingly was not: Cam, Chr, or any other three-letter combo. Listen, I get it. I was reared in and worked at a church called “Colonial.” Seemed like a good... Read more

Is Jesus Your “Political Hero”?

Last updated on: July 22, 2011 at 10:22 am By Tony Jones

Echoing W, who famously called Jesus his favorite philosopher, Tim Pawlenty yesterday called Jesus his favorite political hero. Jon Ward of HuffPo was there: On Thursday, the former Minnesota governor listed Jesus Christ as one of his “political heroes” in response to a question from an Iowa voter about influential figures in his life. There can be no doubt that Jesus was a political figure. But his politics was one of usurpation and insurrection, hardly characteristics that one associates with... Read more