On Being a (Not Quite Good Enough) GLBT Ally

Last updated on: July 15, 2011 at 8:59 am By Tony Jones

In the last week, a couple of writers have taken to the interwebs to proclaim that my support of GLBT persons is, well, sub-par. At Religion Dispatches, Elizabeth Drescher takes offense to the closing salvo in my post, “Homoerotic Churches,” in which I imply that some evangelicals’ taste for the man-on-man grappling in mixed martial arts may mask their own longings. Drescher writes, Jones has apparently missed the homoeroticism of the quarterback snap in football and the rampant ass-slapping across... Read more

I Got Married Yesterday…

Last updated on: July 14, 2011 at 10:17 am By Tony Jones

…so I’m taking today off from the blog. 🙂 Read more

Homoerotic Churches

Last updated on: July 13, 2011 at 7:16 am By Tony Jones

There’s been a lot of talk so far this year about the church and mixed martial arts (MMA). The New York Times had a story in February, “Flock Is Now a Fight Team in Some Ministries,” which read, in part, Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in... Read more

Biblical Marriage

Last updated on: November 10, 2011 at 9:36 am By Tony Jones

Bruce Bawer at The Dish recounts the multifarious forms of “marriage” cataloged in the Bible: (more…) Read more

Breaking News: Process Theologian Believes in God!

Last updated on: July 11, 2011 at 8:55 am By Tony Jones

At HBC, Tripp has posted some sweetness from living legend, process theologian John Cobb. If you harbor misconceptions about process theology, take seven minutes and read this post (plus, as an added bonus, Cobb accurately diagnoses the problem with mainline Christianity today): (more…) Read more

What’s a Christian to Do with…Dan Savage?

Last updated on: July 11, 2011 at 8:46 am By Tony Jones

This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional series: What’s a Christian to do with…? will explore persons and ideas that, at first blush, might seem a bit prickly or even untouchable for a faithful Christian. And yet, when we dig a little deeper, there’s something strangely compelling, something that should, or must, be taken seriously. I confess that almost every week, I pick up a copy of the City Pages, the Twin Cities alt weekly,... Read more

Early Reviews of Google+

Last updated on: July 9, 2011 at 8:34 am By Tony Jones

After days of whining on Twitter, Google finally let me in to their latest innovation, Google+. As a self-appointed “social media guru,” it was a bit embarrassing that it took so long, but oh well. Having now used Google+ for two full hours, I can say that I like what I see. (Full Disclosure: I lovedlovedloved the ill-fated Google Wave, and I never liked Google Buzz, Google’s previous attempts to compete in the Twitter/Facebook arena). The Google+ interface is beautiful... Read more

And the Moral of the Article Is…

Last updated on: July 9, 2011 at 10:55 am By Tony Jones

In today’s New York Times, Mark Oppenheimer has a story about an evangelical couple who, in their early 20s, wrote a book advocating natural family planning (that’s a euphemism for abstaining from intercourse, or pulling out early, when the woman is ovulating — or simply having a bunch of kids). Now, a few years later, the couple is divorced with shared custody. They’ve left evangelicalism — they each attend prog-liberal churches — and they have publicly repudiated their book. They’ve... Read more

Publishing Is Tilting Toward Authors and Readers

Last updated on: July 8, 2011 at 8:21 am By Tony Jones

In this week’s post about preaching from an iPad, I referenced an article in the UM Reporter. Later in that article, I am quoted as saying about the new era in e-publishing, “It’s great for writers and for readers, and it’s horrible for publishers and agents.” I firmly believe that. I love my agent, and I love (almost) all of the editors I’ve worked with at publishing houses. But I feel badly for them as we enter a new epoch... Read more

Rejected Anti-Gay Ad

Last updated on: July 8, 2011 at 8:08 am By Tony Jones

David Brauer reports that the Minneapolis StarTribune has rejected an ad placed by the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative group within the Presbyterian Church (USA): According to Committee president Carmen Fowler LaBerge, “The Strib indicated that if we would scrub the reference in our ad to sex within marriage and scrub the reference to the Bible, they would reconsider running it. Those edits would have so substantively changed the ad as to render it meaningless.” LaBerge says the ad ran... Read more