Marginal Christianity

 Posted on August 27, 2013 by David Fitch — No Comments ↓ You’ve got to love the phrase “Knitting while Detroit burns?” Jamie Smith is one of the best at turning a phrase and this one beautifully visualizes what a lot of people think about Anabaptists and the push for the local. With regard to justice, we Anabaptists supposedly take the church into retreat from society at large in order to focus on the local. In pursuing all things local, we withdraw from engagement with macro policy concerns. This seems to be the worry behind Jamie engaging Brandon Rhode’s article in CT with his piece entitled “Knitting while Detroit burns?” Jamie is afraid the young Millennials’ push for local, and its reaction against their parents’ triumphalism, will eventuate in a rejection of macro civic/policy engagement. Instead he pushes for a “both/and” approach where the church engages society both through local work and macro civil policy. Most ‘Neo-Anabaptist’ thinkers (I use this ...

          Among the plethora of things I have read about Miley Cyrus in the last few days (which is but a fraction of what’s been written), some is profound, some predictable and pedestrian, and some sophomoric, and even silly.   I advised on FB a couple of days ago that it was time to move on from her.   But the more I thought about her performance and the reaction to it, I found something more to say.   I think one of the primary significances of Mikey is that she is us!           Her seamy performance undoubtedly displayed the poor judgment of a young adult, the cynical manipulation of said young adult by market forces, misogynistic and racial exploitation, and moral decadence noted by many observers.   This 20 year-old woman’s morphing from Disney child role model Hanna Montana to her “twerking” it out on the MTV VMA stage a few nights ago is a work in progress th...

http://intotheexpectation.blogspot.com/2013/08/refrain-from-trampling-sabbath_512.html   A sermon on Isaiah 58:9b-14 & Luke 13:10-17 I have a couple of fund raising ideas I’d like to run pass you this morning. What do you think of this? I have a niece who is a very good dancer – very good. One of the kinds of dance she does is tap dancing. I think it would be great to have her come and perform here at St. Barnabas. We can sell tickets and raise money. The best venue would probably be right here in the worship space. But, I was wondering where might be the best place for her to dance so everyone can see her and especially her feet. It seems the obvious platform is right over there [motion toward the altar which is made of dark granite]. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? We’d take the Fair Linen off, of course. I can see many of you have a problem with that. Raise your hand if you don’t like this idea. I see. Well, then, how about this? Every other year, the Outreach...