Can we really tell the difference between spiritual milk and solid food? Maybe sometimes what seems like steak is actually milk.
What is Salvation, Anyway?
It’s a really basic question – and therefore worthy of some attention. Some quotes, and then my own thoughts.
Book Review: “How God Sees Women”
“How God Sees Women” is a stunningly solid exegetical analysis of the topic of complementarianism – the idea that God designated men as the authority and rulers in the kingdom, and that women are not authorized to lead or teach, specifically in the church, but (some believe) also in any public sphere.
Who’s Actually Grooming?
For Pride Month, I was wrong about LGBTQ grooming. I’m not proud of my particular Christian heritage: it’s been revealed as unloving. But I am deeply proud of my Savior who challenged His culture in how He loved the unlovely, the outcast, the sinner, and the oppressed.
Things I Have Learned This Year
I am finding that many things I was taught were dangerously one-sided and served to uncritically reinforce the views I was given. But when I add additional history to my understanding, I am forced to pull back from many conclusions and doctrines and political understandings.
Can Queer and Transgendered Persons Represent the Image of God?
How should we think about the current meteoric rise in gender-fluid thinking and self-expression in today’s culture? Can LGBTQ+ people represent the Imago Dei, the Image of God? It’s a pressing question for the church.
The One Ring of Political Power
The parallels between today’s America and 1930s Germany are striking. In “The Lord of the Rings” J.R.R. Tolkien describes The One Ring, a malevolent and active power which subverts and dominates anyone who wears it. I wonder if the recent pursuit of political power by the Evangelical church is akin to slipping on that ring.
Deconstruction or Repentance?
What if your life mission was to walk the streets of your city, visiting the street corners next to each church, and to cry “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand” – and what if the ones you were calling to repent were the church people who were actually faithfully and diligently living out what they’d been taught were the religious commands from holy scriptures?
This ought to sound familiar. If you did that you’d be following Jesus’ example.
Small Groups and Synagogues
Do small groups support Sunday services, or do Sunday services support small groups? That question is very relevant to the current concerns of many believers about American Christianity’s practices. To find an answer, it’s instructive to consider the Jewish religious practices familiar to the New Test
Let’s Not Take Brandon to Church
It’s hard to imagine a more precise illustration of “the ends justify the means” – and a more ironic one – than a Christian reverting to very anti-Christian behavior in order to obtain or preserve political power for the church. How did we ever get here?