Marginal Christianity

Herma and Herman Neutics on Biblical Interpretation We recently read about a gathering of lay people from a mainline denomination. They were discussing things they would like to see more of from pastors in the denomination. The #1 thing they wanted to see was . . . well, we'll get to that in a moment. It strikes us that this top choice applies not just to pastors but to all of us, especially as we work at interpreting the Bible. The #1 thing these folks want to see in their pastors was humility. The three words that captured humility for them was "I don't know" (or we don't know). The pressure to know, or at least pretend to know, is great in our culture at this time. Especially in the academy. But the worst thing we can pretend to know is the Bible. This attitude cuts off genuine conversation and debate and precludes building a community which can hang together and love, honor, and respect one another even in the midst of deep disagreement or honest ac...

The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 The Great Triad - Micah           It’s hard to start anywhere else in Micah than 6:8 because it is familiar to many and captures the heart of Israel’s faith in a memorable fashion: “(God) has told you, O mortal, what is good;      and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,      and to walk humbly with your God?”           I want to explore this passage today by three P’s I often use to describe Christian existence.           -priorities: our deepest convictions about God, life, and how we should live           -passions: the drives and energies to move us to act           -practices: what we do     ...

  August 2, 2015 August 2, 2015 / johndpav For a while now, I’ve witnessed my Evangelical Christian brothers and sisters bowing at the sacred altar of Ronda Rousey. I’ve watched them genuflect in reverence at her growing legacy of domination in her field. I’ve seen their breathless adoration and effusive social media praise as they speak of her now-expected savage dispatch of her latest opponent. I’ve watched their enthusiastic public invitations to pay-per-view church parties where Rousey and others will do the work of beating and bruising one another into submission. And this week I’ve once again witnessed their giddy exhilaration in the wake of another of her brutal displays of physical dominance over another woman. I’m always surprised (and entertained) at how out of character this is for these fanboys and girls, since I know them so very well. You see, these are many of the same folks who spend the...

Matt Gunter says Christianity also requires us to believe and live as though: "Jesus is the measure of all things? The turn-the-other-cheek guy from Nazereth who got himself crucified? "I must love my enemies and pray for them, repaying evil with good? "We are expected to live nonviolently in such a world as ours? Peace is always better than violence? "Forgiveness is always better than revenge or resentment? "Money is "unrighteous" and dangerous to my soul? That my best investment is to give it all away? "All people are created equal? Is there any other "truth" that is less self-evident or more easily contradicted by reason and scientific evidence? The closest I can get to that is we are all of us equally created in the image of God, equally loved by God, and equally the objects of Christ’s redeeming. It’s still pretty hard to believe from a purely empirical perspective. Humility is a virtue?" Read more at http://int...

My FB friend Bobby Grow and I are thinking along the same line tonight (see his post at http://growrag.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/schooled-in-the-faith-of-christ-thomas-torrance-responds-to-rachel-held-evans-questioning-approach/ ).   Great minds think alike? :-)   I want to come at what I take to be our similar concern from another direction.   He takes on the matter of what constitutes proper questioning of God.   I will look at another facet of the matter here.   I have a growing concern that a certain recklessness in questioning God is becoming our default mode of relating to him.   From the Garden of Eden on the central issue between God and humanity was/is the latter inability/unwillingness to trust God.   Even for those who follow Jesus this remains our central struggle.   God accommodates this weakness by allowing us to vent and rage at him, call him terrible names, and hurl all manner of vile accusation against him (see Job and Lamen...

by  Steve McCoy October 15, 2014   I  recently expressed my love for pop music despite being a bit of an indie music snob. I must also confess that I regularly listen to pop radio. You know, that thing with knobs on the dash of the car that deciphers audio waves rather than a wifi signal. Lately two voices familiar to most of us who enjoy pop music have been competing for radio time–and their messages couldn’t be more different. While Taylor points the finger outward at her critics and her bad boyfriends, Sia points the finger at herself. Words matter, and many of these artists are using them carefully. Like the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, we can use the words of our culture’s poets to connect and communicate with the world around us, especially regarding things true and beautiful accessible to us all. It may be easy to criticize pop music by throwing around the word “vapid”, but our critiques might be what are truly vapid. A...