Marginal Christianity

  Perverse Patriotism is the unique and exclusive loyalty (what we call “faith”) to apocalyptic Jesus that serves him in a Subversive Counter-Revolutionary Movement                                          (SCRM, a.k.a. in polite society as “church”)  Perverse patriots can only be that if they know who they are. That’s not as easy as it sounds. In North America the church knowing who it is and understanding the difference between that identity and a living in America is problematic because the confusion between the two is profound and pervasive. It is my contention that across the board in whatever form we find God’s people, that is a people fleeing Egypt, wandering nomads, a united and divided monarchy, a people in exile in Babylon, and a people exiled in their own land under foreign rule, they are to be a Subversive Counter-Revolutionary Movement (SCRM). Jesu...

Jesus’ identity has been the focus of Mark’s attention for some time now. To this point, other characters have identified Jesus as John the Baptist redivivus, Elijah, another ancient prophet, an amazing teacher, a home-town boy, and a sorcerer. Ironically, the only characters who seem to have any inkling who Jesus truly is are the demons and unclean spirits (1:24, 34; 3:12; 5:7). But that’s about to change! Mark’s brought us to a climactic moment. But first a moment of reflection. Identity is anything but something else we know about someone else or ourselves. It’s a whole life makeover! A new identity is something that changes us. How we see the world and respond to it can never be the same again. Even if we, at a later date, try to flee or renounce it. When Jesus and his disciples arrive at Caesarea Philippi such a decisive moment comes for the disciples. Mark has already shown us how God’s affirmation of Jesus’ identity and vocation transformed him from a peasant car...

by Michael Frost | Jul 29, 2017 | Homepage | 1 comment Are you a Somewhere or an Anywhere? Last years Brexit vote stunned many pundits and social commentators, who struggled to explain how it could have happened. But one of them, author David Goodhart has come up with an intriguing explanation for the deep divisions in British society. It’s all about “people from Somewhere versus people from Anywhere.” I think this fascinating idea helps make sense not only of Brexit, but the emergence of conservative nationalism in Europe and Australia, and the election of US President Donald Trump. Let me explain. In his book The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics , David Goodhart says society can be broken into two large groups. First, there’s the Somewheres. . . Read more at http://mikefrost.net/people-somewhere-vs-people-anywhere/

by ROBERT P. JONES May 2, 2017 After the British writer G. K. Chesterton visited the United States for the first time, he remarked that America was “a nation with the soul of a church.” Mr. Chesterton wasn’t referring to the nation’s religiosity but to its formation around a set of core political beliefs enshrined in founding “sacred texts,” like the Declaration of Independence. He noted that the United States, unlike European countries, did not rely on ethnic kinship, cultural character or a “national type” for a shared identity. The profoundness of the American experiment, he argued, was that it aspired to create “a home out of vagabonds and a nation out of exiles” united by voluntary assent to commonly held political beliefs. But recent survey data provides troubling evidence that a shared sense of national identity is unraveling, with two mutually exclusive narratives emerging along party lines. At the heart of this divide are opposing reactions ...

By Arthur E. Farnsley II | December 7, 2016 Supporters cheer as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Sarasota, Fla., on Nov. 7, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Carlo Allegri *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-FARNSLEY-OPED, originally published on Dec. 7, 2016. (RNS) Students in my college classes start out thinking religious identity and behavior are primarily about ideas. When I ask them about differences between Catholics and Methodists, they respond with differences in beliefs: the pope, contraception and transubstantiation. These theological differences are real, of course, but I learned long ago that ideas do not create religious identity: They follow from it. My students imagine we pick from a large menu of ideological options and then make decisions about which membership best fits our own ideas. It does not take long to convince them this “decision” model is badly incomplete. We never start from a...

http://theyoungcurmudgeonpriest.blogspot.ca/2014/11/christian-identity-21st-century-crisis.html?m=1   The Church likes to fight - a lot.  Since the earliest days of Christianity the followers of Jesus Christ have been at odds with one another over one thing or another.  A simple reading of the Book of Acts is evidence to the ongoing struggle of early Christians to agree on much as they delivered the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.  While some often long for the "old days" where everyone got along, that was never reality.  Wars, reformations, heresy trials...it goes on and on.  The Church has always been in conflict and that is not a terrible thing.  Nothing stays the same - the Church is like any living organism, it grows and becomes something new all the time and the Church grows through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and it is in discerning the call of the Holy Spirit that we argue and it is in discerning the call of the Holy Spirit that...

http://www.chrismorton.info/2013/05/20/how-churches-became-full-of-gatsbys/?fb_action_ids=10151656308902040%2C10151655029012040%2C10151653539167040&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UbNJAsdwUL4.send&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210151656308902040%22%3A596083587090501%2C%2210151655029012040%22%3A568230979874929%2C%2210151653539167040%22%3A458616777561094}&action_type_map={%2210151656308902040%22%3A%22og.likes%22%2C%2210151655029012040%22%3A%22og.likes%22%2C%2210151653539167040%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map={%2210151656308902040%22%3A%22.UbNJAsdwUL4.send%22} Chris  —  May 20, 2013 —  3 Comments 1 in Share Email Print Americans love Gatsby. We love the idea of a mystery man from nowhere. We want to believe, like Gatsby, that we can invent a persona to fit into our culture. Gatsby is a story about the lengths we will go to because of shame. Gat...

http://www.chrismorton.info/ Some practices or habits we engage in are thin , like exercising or brushing our teeth. We do these habits toward a particular end, to be in shape and have clean teeth . Thin practices don’t touch on our identity. “It would be an odd thing, for instance, for me to think of myself first and foremost as a ‘tooth brusher.’ These practices or habits don’t touch our love or fundamental desire .” Thick practices or (liturgies) are rituals of ultimate concern , rituals that are identity-forming and telos-laden, that embed particular visions of the good life, and do so in a way that seeks to trump other ritual formations. So what kind of liturgies do the people in the congregation you serve in embody? How do they increase pe...

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/6222/neither_the_joker_nor_godlessness_drove_batman_shooting/ By Jeffrey Scholes Jeffrey Scholes is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and Director for the Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life, UCCS. When men don't fear God, they give themselves to evil. This was clearly the case in the latest mass murder. – Ray Comfort As many of us are struggling to find a reason or reasons for the Aurora, Colorado theater shootings in the early morning of Friday, July 20, there is no shortage of pundits offering their own explanations. Maybe the alleged shooter, James Holmes, was depressed after scoring low on exams in his PhD program at the University of Colorado. Or he must have had a rough upbringing. Or the common refrain: he’s simply psychotic, and no verifiable reason for the shooting will ever be discovered. The responses from religious commentators, scholars, and...