I had a chance to sit down with Brian McLaren this past week via Zoom for my UNenlightenment podcast. We talked about everything from Trumpism to Progressive Christianity as well as his new book “Faith After Doubt”. A great interview with a great thinker. You can view the YouTube video here You can hear the podcast here Read more
There are a lot of opinions as to what constitutes Christendom. However, Christendom should be understood as the confluence between the political and Christian bodies of a nation. Those who advocate for Christendom envisage a country that upholds biblical values both formally (legislatively) and informally (culturally). There are generally two types of proponents of Christendom. The first sees the U.S. as a country not that different from the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. They would like to see... Read more
Jesus’s worst enemy was not Rome, it was His own people – the religious leaders. In 1741 evangelical preacher Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His sermon outlined the various ways in which his people were disobeying God. The sermon was meant to convict and empower the people to make changes and follow God. The sermon was later published and became a classic within American Christianity. It is important to write a... Read more
I get that it is past Valentine’s Day, but who cares? Love is a topic that transcends simple greeting card novelty. In fact, love is of such great value that it even transcends humanity. Many argue that love is the chief attribute of God and that nothing He does is apart from the great love He has for His creation. What is it about love that makes it so different than any other form of relational expression? There is a... Read more
I was always taught that the most significant difference between Christianity and every other religion is that Christians serve a “risen” Savior; that unlike other gods ours is the true living God in the person of Jesus Christ. However, throughout the past 20 years, various ministerial contexts have demonstrated something quite different. It seems for many Christians, particularly evangelicals, God is a construct of their imagination. In other words, instead of being a Holy God who has indwelt us through... Read more
In the opening chapters of Genesis, we read that God created everything in the cosmos in six days. After each creation, we find that God says what He has created was “good”. We oftentimes assume that this proclamation reflects in some way God’s nature. If it is believed that God is good, then it must also be believed that His creation was as good as He is. However, we know this is not logically possible because God cannot create something... Read more
I feel like I have a soul. I don’t mean I believe I have a soul. I mean I can feel it. I feel the duality of an inner and outer world. Within my inner world, my voice is constantly speaking. During the day it appears as thoughts and speech and at night it appears as dreams. However, I am constantly perplexed by the question, “to whom am I speaking?” I can’t be speaking to myself, because my self... Read more
I recently read a book by Alisa Childers called “Another Gospel: a lifelong Christian seeks truth in response to progressive Christianity” and it reminded me of just how much evangelical Christianity has misunderstood what Progressive Christianity is all about. This author is no exception. The book goes through her intellectual journey leaving evangelicalism/fundamentalism and trying out Progressive Christianity. Eventually, she finds Progressive Christianity unhelpful for what she is seeking. I would have no issue with the book had she stopped... Read more
Doubt within the Christian faith can be a time of great anguish. It can also be very lonely. Oftentimes, due to fear, we are left to deal with the struggle on our own because we don’t want people to think that we are weak. However, doubt is not an attribute of the weak, but rather it demonstrates the mental fortitude of the strong. Doubt demonstrates a person’s ability to critically think. That within their critical thinking, they may discover something... Read more
Last Wednesday, I watched the certification of the Electoral College votes. I didn’t know such a thing even existed until this year. However, I decided to watch to see if there would be any crazy protests and to watch our government continue to waste time on an unimportant certification. I saw what I expected to see. There were excited Democrats and a group of resigned Republicans ready to certify Joe Biden as the next President. Then there were other Republicans... Read more
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