Theoblogy
Eskimo: “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” Priest: “No, not if you did not know.” Eskimo: “Then why did you tell me?” -Annie Dillard Read more
Eskimo: “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” Priest: “No, not if you did not know.” Eskimo: “Then why did you tell me?” -Annie Dillard Read more
If so, Third Way, a think tank in Washington, D.C. might be a good place to start. I have signed their “Come Let Us Reason Together Governing Statement.” If you are interested in civility in our cultural conversations about abortion, gay rights, immigration reform, and torture, I strongly suggest that you read it and consider supporting it. Read more
In the movie, Milk, there is a poignant scene in which Harvey Milk answers the phone and on the other end of the line is a wheelchair-bound boy who says that his family is abusing him because of his same sex attraction. Milk tells the boy to get out of the house and fly to San Francisco where he’d be surrounded by people who would accept him. There’s been a search on for the boy, since he’s not in the... Read more
Back when Patton Dodd asked initially asked me to consider blogging for Bnet, he wanted to play on the “Dispatches” subtitle of my book. That is, he wanted to take advantage of my frequent travels to write about how the “emergent church” conversation is being embraced (or rejected) around the country and the world. Well, I spent the better part of this week in central Missouri, addressing the annual continuing education event of the Missouri district of the United Methodist... Read more
Bob is not going to be happy, but I’m posting robroy’s response to my Rick Warren vs. Gene Robinson, and I’m doing so because I think, regardless of robroy’s rudeness, it shows a particular perspective on why Gene Robinson (and by extension, the Episcopal Church) may actually be more of a sideshow while Rick Warren (and evangelicalism) may be the main event these days: It is instructive to compare the two men: Rick Warren has traveled extensively in Africa, setting... Read more
God Spam has some suggestions for inauguration apparel. Read more
I’m sitting in an airport, reading in the USA Today that it’s now been two years since a commercial airline crash, the longest crash-free period in aviation history, and I’m watching on TV as rescuers fish passengers of a downed Airbus 320 out of the Hudson River. Surreal. Prayers for everyone on board that they got out alive. Read more
A while back, I mused at the exceptionally long news cycle of the story that BO had asked Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. That story had a lot of legs, in the blogosphere and in the news. (A search for “‘Rick Warren’ inauguration” turns up 4833 results on Google News and 115,670 results on Google Blogsearch.) Last weekend, news came out that Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, has... Read more
Dan dissents regarding the post, Is Mysticism Gnostic?: Tony writes: “In my Monday post, I mused that the “secret knowledge” vibe expounded by some conservative Christians opens them to the charge of gnosticism. Some commenters mentioned that the other primary characteristic of gnosticism is a strict, platonic dualism.” I don’t see the first charge as being valid for conservative Christians at all. Unless Paul’s statement that spiritual truths are only discerned by the mind that is energized by the Holy... Read more
Matt Cleaver, a seminary student who visited last Sunday, has a good take. Money quote: I thought this would be a cool opportunity to see in real life all that I had been reading and hearing about, and it was honestly pretty much what I expected: quite anticlimactic and ordinary. And I mean that truly in the best way possible. Obviously when I say ordinary I don’t mean mainstream. When you walk into the Great Room (think sanctuary) and see... Read more
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