I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. In chapter two, Kenda focuses on what is “Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism,” the reigning religion of American teenagers, and on how we got here. I found it interesting that in the comments under the last post, the criticism was immediately turned on parents — parents are the problem, was the common refrain. But I didn’t mention parents. I wrote... Read more
I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. In chapter one, Kenda lays out her thesis: the reason that youth ministry is failing to make disciples is because churches suck. She puts it a bit more softly: Since the religious and spiritual choices of American teenagers echo, with astonishing clarity, the religious and spiritual choices of the adults who love them, lackadaisical faith is not young... Read more
If so, then you should consider applying for a Pastoral Sabbatical Grant at the Louisville Institute. I won one in 2003 and as a result traveled the world and wrote a book (two, actually). I highly recommend it… Read more
The StarTribune reports: Hours after giving their blessing to ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined late Thursday to change the church’s definition of marriage, in effect refusing to allow same-sex marriages within their denomination. If the proposal had been approved, the church’s definition of marriage would have changed from a commitment between “a woman and a man” to “two people” and allowed church weddings in states that have legalized gay marriage. The late-night decision... Read more
I’m currently in Sewanee, Tennessee, speaking at the School of Theology here at the “University of the South” (confident, aren’t they?). But back at home, several of my friends are gathered with their fellow Presbyterians at the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). For the two years preceding this meeting, Bruce Reyes-Chow has been the moderator of that denomination, and his tenure ended earlier this week in Minneapolis. Now, I’m no proponent of denominationalism. As I’ve written, I... Read more
It seems that Adam Walker-Cleaveland has acquired an illicit copy of Doug Pagitt’s new book, Church in the Inventive Age and posted some excerpts and pictures on his blog. The book does not release for a month, so I must ask you, dear reader, to not go to Pomomusings and read the excerpts. And do not, by any means, buy the book. Thanks. Read more
That’s the title of Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. My endorsement of it reads, “A lot of youth workers have been a bit depressed since the National Study of Youth and Religion revealed what we’d long suspected about American teen religiosity: it’s pretty darn benign. But in Almost Christian, Kenda Creasy Dean helps us turn the corner from the moralistic, therapeutic deism that afflicts our churches to a hope-filled, consequential faith... Read more
I’ve been part of the development of a new website for lectionary preachers (and others who care about the text). The site is the brainchild of one of my favorite preachers (and authors), the Reverend Russell Rathbun of House of Mercy. Two of each week’s lectionary texts will be investigated by Russell, who curates the site, and guest contributors. In recent years, Russell has been attracted to the midrash way of approaching, exegeting, and proclaiming the text. Specifically, he’s been... Read more
At Religion Dispatches, Jewish scholar Jay Michaelson undertakes an in-depth study of the word, toevah, most often translated “abomination” in English versions of the Hebrew Scriptures. His conclusion: Now, if by “abomination,” the King James means a cultural prohibition—something which a particular culture abhors but another culture enjoys—then the term makes sense. But in common parlance, the term has come to mean much more than that. Today, it connotes something horrible, something contrary to the order of nature itself, or... Read more
One of my senators, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), asked Elena Kagan yesterday about, among other things, the question of judge-as-umpire. It seems that Chief Justice John Roberts, during his own confirmation hearing, was asked about whether a Supreme Court justice is very much like and umpire, and he responded that, yes, they are. Umpires don’t set the rules of baseball, just enforce them; and judges don’t make the laws, just adjudicate them. At the risk of boring you, dear reader, let... Read more
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