Archive - restore. RSS Feed

reply.

May 17, 2013 in move., reform., restore. with 4 Comments

reply

 

this week on a recent blog post, a regular reader went back and read my theological essentials i’d posted last year. in his response, he and i engaged in a little back-and-forth concerning the exclusivity of christ. in order to to preemptively avoid the john 14:6 conversation (in which we often misinterpret the verse to mean that jesus acts as the bouncer of heaven), i had suggested he take a look at the context of that passage.

in his reply, the reader asked ::

Does that make me a heretic, Michael, for believing that Jesus is the only way to salvation?

here’s part of my response ::

Continue Reading…

good reminder.

April 12, 2013 in restore. with 0 Comments

goodreminder
blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

editing the gospel.

April 11, 2013 in dream., move., reform., restore. with 4 Comments

censoredfaith
imagine if jesus refused to engage with those whose beliefs were different than his own, or worried about risking his standing in religious culture more than caring for the Other.

imagine if he concerned himself with being misunderstood by the first century israeli paparazzi and therefore excused himself from places and faces that might affect his ‘holy’ image and reputation.

we might have to edit out a few stories in the gospels.

like, all of them.

Continue Reading…

an unlikely friendship.

April 9, 2013 in move., restore. with 6 Comments

patheos
the following post was originally written for The Marin Foundation blog at patheos.com and can be read here.

there’s credibility and power in proximity and relationship.

it is impossible to advance the message of reconciliation without being in proximity to and relationship with those who’ve been marginalized. proximity to and relationship with the marginalized instills in us an ability to see beyond the misinformation which has too often led to the dehumanization and lessening of those known as ‘the Other.’

it’s easy to speak out of a position of ignorance and intolerance when we’re dealing with unknown faces and unheard stories.

it becomes much more difficult – impossible, in fact – when we’re speaking of our friends.

proximity and relationship means everything.

Continue Reading…

division.

March 28, 2013 in dream., move., reform., restore. with 22 Comments

division

yesterday, i held my tongue.

as the supreme court continued its discussion on gay marriage for the second day in a row, again our facebook feeds filled with changed profile pictures and folks combating one another on the validity of such an action.

other folks used their status to decry the ‘unholy contempt being shown for God’s ways‘ (a literal quote) and more than a few posts were made with some political, religious or moral rant for or against homosexuality.

with some of my friends fighting for equality and others fighting to maintain the status quo – each convinced of the moral validity of their arguments – whether based on their interpretation of a religious text, personal ethics, some moral code or a conviction of civil rights and justice – the conversation seems to be causing more division than dialogue.

Continue Reading…

hearing.

March 26, 2013 in move., restore. with 3 Comments

hearing
this morning and afternoon my twitter feed is filled with comments and speculations on the SCOTUS hearing this morning in which the justices held a Q & A with the representatives of the prop 8 case.

of particular interest was justice kennedy’s comment that it may be too early to vote on same-sex marriage as the conversation is taking the court into ‘uncharted waters.’

there was a great deal of speculation on the supreme court’s pending decision in june, and the blogosphere is almost assuredly to be inundated tomorrow and in the days to come with even more speculation than today, from both conservatives and activists for equality in marriage.

Continue Reading…

pushback.

March 20, 2013 in move., reform., restore. with 10 Comments

pushback

sometimes i invite it.

yesterday i was encouraged to hear that my previous days’ post at RLC on the evangelical reaction to rob bell’s support of gay marriage had helped bring about the highest traffic in the website’s history (in conjunction with this post) ::

that was encouraging.

i also received plenty of facebook messages, emails, texts and DMs on twitter stating an appreciation for my words. comments ranged from ‘catchy title’ to ‘very carefully written’ calling the article ‘thought provoking’ or ‘beautifully worded.’

other comments were…less encouraging.

Continue Reading…

barriers.

March 19, 2013 in move., reform., restore. with 0 Comments

barriers
perhaps one of the most under-utilized passages in all of scripture is found in mark 15:38 ::

‘and the veil of the temple was torn in two – from top to bottom.’

it seems no matter how hard we try to force the life and teachings of jesus into the boxes of us/them || yes/no|| win/lose || in/out , they always seem to – forgive the word – emerge beyond those borders and break out of the boundaries we’ve attempted to force them into. the barriers keep collapsing.

as we follow God in the way of jesus, we continually find ourselves forced out of the comfort zone of ‘us’ and into community with ‘them.’

living incarnationally in these tension-filled spaces, in intentional pursuit of that which is disconnected, we are continually forced to confront our prejudices and intolerance of ‘the Other.’

this so-called Other could be defined as anyone on the ‘outside’ :: any deemed ‘not one of us’, belonging to a differing group, gender, orientation, party, community, religion, race, culture or creed.

we love having Others. it gives us an identity. something – or even someone – to be against.

yet a christian faith without commitment to the Other is really not christian at at all, because christ was committed to the Other.

Continue Reading…

RIP, rob bell.

March 18, 2013 in move., reform., restore. with 9 Comments

riprob
some evangelicals are now not only saying, ‘farewell, rob bell’ but actually declaring him dead to evangelicalism.

RIP, rob bell.

as if the ‘love wins’ controversy wasn’t enough, in the first week of his new book’s release (which i read yesterday on my flight from orlando, and recommend), rob did what most of us do – had a Q and A.

and after what one person reported from a Q and A session last night in san francisco, it appears this morning that rob bell came out in support of gay marriage (i first saw the story from tony jones).

rob said,

‘I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs – I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.’

Continue Reading…

be humanized.

March 13, 2013 in restore. with 4 Comments

behumanized
growing up in a private christian school, my classes were a little skewed toward the perspective of evangelical christianity. in biology class i didn’t learn about the ‘theory of evolution’ because we had the truth of God’s word to tell us exactly how the earth was created.

in six literal days.

we also learned in ‘marriage and family’ class that it was best if a woman stayed at home to be a mother rather than pursuing a career; in ‘understanding the times’ we learned how wrong other religions were and were tested on our ability to debunk their ludicrous claims (unlike our own faith’s claims, which we were expected to accept in faith and defend); and in our ‘senior seminar’ we actually learned about the evils of rock and roll by watching a movie called ‘Hell’s Bells :: the danger of rock and roll.’

i think the same people made this video about beyoncé.

but i digress.

Continue Reading…

Page 1 of 1312345»10...Last »