The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Brian Zahnd’s brand new book Water To Wine: Some of My Story. Be sure to pick up a copy – it releases today wherever books are sold! I once heard an Italian winemaker say that to produce good wine the grapes must struggle, they must suffer. The taste of good wine is the taste of struggle and suffering mellowed into beauty. There’s a deep truth there that applies to far more than winemaking—it... Read more
Ruth Graham reports at Slate on Rubio’s latest attempt get that elusive and necessary evangelical vote. Namely, he’s assembled an advisory board of sorts with some evangelical heavies, including Rick Warren. Notably, he just added Wayne Grudem – whose systematic theology and views on complementarianism are gold standards in the Neo-Calvinist world – to the board. Here’s Ruth: Grudem is one of the leading proponents of complementarianism. In fact, he has claimed a role in coining the term—a hideously clunky and... Read more
The following is a guest post by Dr. Chris Green. See Chris’s bio at the bottom of the post. Because it bears us into the work of interpretation, ‘the gift of Pentecost entails slow, hard work’. In point of fact, as Hauerwas reminds us, … the gift of Pentecost is but the beginning of hard and painful lessons in failure. Yet even failure turns out to be a gift if through failure the church is reminded that others are included... Read more
I know Christmas is now tiny in the rear view mirror, but with the sad news that David Bowie died yesterday I thought I’d share one of my favorite Bowie moments. A strange, and strangely powerful, duet with the king of Christmas music Bing Crosby on that old classic Little Drummer Boy. Peace on earth, can it be? Years from now, perhaps we’ll see. RIP, Bowie. Read more
The Washington Post is reporting that The Donald will be the next presidential candidate to speak at Liberty University. And given Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s recent exhortation to students to get concealed carry licenses so they can kill “those Muslims” before a terrorist attack happens on campus, I’m guessing Trump will receive a rousing reception. Perhaps he’ll even pack heat! Oh, and there’s this: On a recent Fox News segment, Falwell said his three favorite presidential contenders are Republicans Trump, Ben... Read more
I wrote a bit about this situation here, but the Chicago Tribune is now reporting that Wheaton is pursuing termination procedures with tenured professor Larycia Hawkins. Prof. Hawkins, you’ll remember, came under fire from the school after wearing a hijab in solidarity with peaceful Muslims and then writing that Christians and Muslims “worship the same God.” Here’s the Tribune: Larycia Hawkins, a tenured political science professor who in December demonstrated solidarity with her Muslim neighbors by wearing a hijab, said at the... Read more
A recent GQ exposé went behind the scenes at one of the fastest growing megachurches in America, Hillsong NYC. Shiny. Modern. Relatable. Cool. These were a handful of the adjectives used by author Taffy Brodesser-Akner to describe the experience. I was witnessing the logical conclusion of an evolutionary convergence between coolness and Christianity that began at the dawn of the millennium, when progressive-minded Christians, terrified of a faithless future, desperately rended their garments and replaced them with skinny jeans and flannel shirts... Read more
My bishop-at-large Brian Zahnd wrote yesterday comparing the story of Mary losing young Jesus in Jerusalem to his own faith-experience of losing Jesus. He writes: Losing Jesus. Finding Jesus. Rethinking Jesus. This is how we make spiritual progress. This is the only way we make spiritual progress! Yes! This is exactly my experience, and it’s at the heart of discovering what it means to be Jesus-centered anew and afresh. In fact, this is also at the heart of what it means to be... Read more
At The Atlantic today, Emma Green astutely comments on the famous chorus in the beloved carol O Come All Ye Faithful – “Oh come let us adore him”: Adore is a curious word. In English, it’s become a cutesy toss-off, best used around baby chicks (“Adoooorable!”) or under-$50 Christmas presents (“Oh, I just adore Yankee Christmas Candles!”). It denotes obsession, but in a sugar-high kind of way—a burst of intense affection that doesn’t necessarily reach the depths of the soul. But the word comes... Read more
The following is a post by Tristan Sherwin taken from his book, Love Expressed. It must have been a picture – the pool of Bethesda mentioned by the writer of the fourth Gospel, as described in John chapter 5. A pool of water, mainly stagnant, surrounded by five covered porches, under which sat crowds (John’s words, not mine) of sick people – blind, lame, paralysed. All of them are waiting for one thing; ‘a certain movement of the water’ – this... Read more
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