In response to Gigliogate, Gabe Lyons wrote a tirade about how this was a hate crime against his fellow evangelical speaker and that Barack Obama was facing a Martin Luther King moment in how he responds. David Sessions came back at Lyons in stunning fashion. His opening paragraph says what I’ve been trying to say for some time: the young, hip evangelical intelligentsia is no different from from the older cabal of Dobson, Colson, and the like. Here’s Sessions: I wrote a... Read more
Doug and I like to mess with people. That probably doesn’t shock anyone who knows us. So, at the conference we convened last week, we messed with a bunch of presenters. While we allowed Phyllis Tickle, the keynote speaker, to give four hour-long talks, we asked a bunch of our other speaker friends to talk about something they are passionate about. For 6 minutes and 40 seconds. With 20 slides timed at 20 seconds each. For presenters who are used... Read more
Here’s the text of the pecha kucha talk I gave at Emergence Christianity last week: The joy of hunting is sublime. Surprisingly sublime, when you consider that the climax of the endeavor comes with an explosion, in which a firing pin makes a tiny dent on the metal boot of a shotgun shell, compressing gunpowder and thereby causing an explosion that ejects dozens of pellets at breathtaking velocity through a metal tube and, if fate is on your side, into... Read more
Two lists have surfaced — there are probably more. Salon has one (that includes Your Favorite Blogger): Brian McLaren: In the post-evangelical, non-denominational “emerging church” movement, McLaren has distinguished himself for promoting the idea of what he calls a New Kind of Christian (also the title of his 2001 book). Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in 2005, a year when conservative evangelicals were ascendant after helping George W. Bush secure a second term. Rabbi David Saperstein: Newsweek... Read more
Such great news! The Washington National Cathedral has announced that it will begin celebrating weddings of gay and lesbian couples inside the historic church. In a released statement from the cathedral, its leadership states the church has a “long history of advancing equality for people of all faiths and perspectives. The Cathedral is called to serve as a gathering place for the nation in times of significance, but it is also rooted in its role as the most visible faith community... Read more
I’m in Memphis, coordinating an event called Emergence Christianity: A National Gathering with Phyllis Tickle and Friends. It’s gonna be awesome. In advance of it launching tomorrow, some of my friends have written posts reflecting on it. Bruce Reyes-Chow: Aren’t We Done Emerging Yet? Sure. I know — f or some people, the whole ”emergent” church thing is sooooo over and as a brand, sure. Not one to get too caught up in needed precise definitions *shocking* the core values of this population — the... Read more
I’m guessing that most Theoblogy readers are supporters of GLBT persons in the church. But if you’re not, or if you’ve got friends who are on the fence on this issue, Kimberly Knight has 12 (beautiful, graceful, non-judgmental) steps to becoming an ally in 2013. Here are three of them: 3. Invite – Invite the Holy Spirit into your heart to do a new thing. Invite new ideas to your table. Invite a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender friend to... Read more
2012 may have been the year of websites and Facebook pages that make Christians look stupid. Well, to be honest, Christians make themselves look stupid plenty — and it seems the more conservative or Pentecostal, the more likely they’ve posted stupid stuff on YouTube or elsewhere that other Christians and non-Christians then post to show how stupid those other Christians are. I’m not immune. One of my biggest posts of 2012 was pointing out The Worst Church Website in the... Read more
I posted Tanya’s Question That Haunts a week ago. It’s taken me too long to get to it, but that’s fine because it gave all of you more time to post amazingly smart comments. I have a question about evil. Basically, what is it? When people say “evil” do they just mean really, really bad? The shootings in Sandy Hook are “evil,” passing a bad check is just bad. No? How does this work? Is this something where knowing the Greek... Read more
Peter Rollins’s new book has dropped. Here’s how my endorsement reads on Amazon: “Caveat emptor. Let the reader, the Christian, the skeptic beware, for with The Idolatry of God, Peter Rollins has taken his theological program of turning everything we believe upside down to the next level. Not content to simply subvert how we believe, Rollins now turns his attention to what we believe. If you don’t want your faith challenged, don’t read this book.” (Tony Jones, author of A Better Atonement ) But here’s how it... Read more
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