Gay Conversion Ministry Sued for Fraud

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced that they’re suing a “conversion ministry” of defrauding clients by claiming they could “cure” people of their gayness: Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) fraudulently claimed to provide services that “convert” people from gay to straight. These services, known as conversion therapy, have been discredited or highly criticized by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the New Jersey... Read more

Why Do We Need Baptism? [Questions That Haunt]

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

This week’s Questions That Haunt Christianity comes from a young pastor. Sam asks: I am a young pastor in Chicago with the Evangelical Covenant. I just read your book A Better Atonement and I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve struggled with the doctrine of Original Sin for a long while, but I’ve been thinking about how this, if at all, changes my view of baptism. I don’t believe that original sin is necessary for baptism but as I try to formulate my... Read more

Who Is Rob Bell?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

This post is part of the Patheos Book Club. Check out the Book Club for more posts on this book, an interview with the author, and for responses from other bloggers and columnists. I got a lot of Rob Bell this weekend. First, I read the New Yorker profile on him, then I dove into James Wellman’s book, Rob Bell and a New American Christianity. The two intersected often, and sometime contradicted each other. Before I proffer my analysis, let me remind you:... Read more

Weekend Update

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

In case you were bloated with triptophan and missed it over the the weekend, here’s what happened on the blog: I gave thanks for all of you readers: Among the things for which I’m grateful is you, and I mean that quite sincerely. When I started blogging in 2004, it was a lonely enterprise. I was lonely — my early posts were composed in an empty apartment in Princeton, NJ. My family had left after my first year of coursework, and... Read more

You May Hate My Theology, But Just Look at My Marketing!

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Jim Fletcher of “Prophecy Matter” pens an unintentionally hilarious column: It’s always important, I think, to separate our sometimes-disdain for other writers whose ideas run counter to our own … from the tools they use to market themselves. In other words, learning from someone is more useful than ruminating over their existence in the writing field. Witness the book tour efforts of “Emergent” writers and speakers Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. Full disclosure: I can’t stand their “theology” (Jones for... Read more

God Is Not “Perfect” [Questions That Haunt]

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Questions That Haunt Christianity continues this week with a question from frequent commenter, Lausten North: If God just was, before time, before the universe, and he was perfect, why did he create the imperfect universe with us imperfect humans? If he wanted us to choose to love him, then he wasn’t really perfect before, he was lacking love in some way. If we are actually perfect as we are, then that is a strange re-definition of the word perfect. If you... Read more

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone (A Note to Readers)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Dear readers and friends (both Americans and non), Today, I will stop by the gym to ride the bike for a bit, then get the kids from their mom’s house — they’re with us from 9am-2pm. We will proceed to a traditional Puritan re-enactment/worship service at Colonial Church, the church of my youth. After that, we’ll finish baking the six pies that we’re responsible to bring to dinner and get in a game of touch football before sitting down to... Read more

Remixing David Simon – for the Church

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

After the election, David Simon wrote a compelling post about change and our society. Simon is one of our best writers and thinkers, and I happen to believe that his show, The Wire, is the best show in the history of television. I have taken the liberty to remix his prescient words to the American electorate, because I think they’re equally applicable to the church: Barack Obama And The Death Of Normal Evangelicalism I was on an airplane last night as... Read more

Church of England Decides that Silly Clothes Aren’t the Only Thing They Want To Keep from the 16th Century

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

The Church of England has decided to continue an archaic and oppressive policy that only individuals with penises are allowed to be bishops: Church of England Rejects Appointing Female Bishops LONDON — The mood of crisis in the Church of England deepened on Wednesday when bishops scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the repercussions of the ballot at a synod a day earlier that rejected the appointment of female bishops, a change that has been debated intensely and often bitterly... Read more

The Emergent Church Isn’t Dead — Here’s Proof

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

I was in Dallas over the weekend (at the National Youth Workers Convention), and I had the good fortune to visit Union Coffee Shop. Union is the vision of Mike Baughman, whom I first met at Princeton. Mike is entrepreneurial and ambitious, the very characteristics that are so often mitigated against and even squashed in mainline denominations. But Mike didn’t let that stultifying environment deter him. Instead, he’s rallied 12 Methodist church and numerous individual donors to chip in. His vision, which... Read more