Christians are often broadly painted with the same brush by people as a large homogeneous group. When I was immersed in the.fundamentalist's worldview, the term Christians meant the people who believed as I did that the Bible is inerrant, penal substitution was the heart of the gospel, and all nonbelievers were going to suffer eternal …
Tag: Bible
Let’s talk about Biblical marriage
Both houses of Congress recently passed the Respect for Marriage Act, with many Republicans joining with Democrats to pass the bill that will protect the right of same-sex couples to marry. Prior to it being voted on in the House of Representatives, conservative Republican congresswoman Vicky Hartzler gave an impassioned speech on the House floor …
Perverse obscenity
In recent weeks two men with obscene levels of wealth stroked their overly developed egos as they became the first private citizens to fund a trip to "space." It seemingly did not matter to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos that what they were doing was an utterly pointless vanity project, or that NASA has been …
The Earth needs a Sabbath
Biblical scripture speaks to the beauty of our home planet, the need to take care of it, and I believe command to reverence it as well. The Orthodox Church in America notes that reverence is hard to define, saying that it can be seen in attitudes of wonder, awe, submission or respect, along with veneration, …
Recommended reading: Florer-Bixler’s Fire by Night
Melissa Florer-Bixler's book Fire by Night: Finding God in the pages of the Old Testament is a must read for Christians who struggle to make sense of or to find meaning in the Hebrew scriptures. Though her theological and Biblical interpretation skills are clearly evident, Florer-Bixler writes in a wonderfully accessible, narrative style that I …
Continue reading Recommended reading: Florer-Bixler’s Fire by Night
A Ruthian take down of purity culture?
Let's talk about sex.
Help Wanted: No penis required
There is a prevalent idea among many Christians, spurious though it is, that women cannot serve in church leadership as ministers, or to teach men in any capacity such as in a seminary class. To do so these folks claim is to ignore Biblical authority. In their view, the world is a sinful place filled …
Bible 101: What the Bible isn’t. Part One
In an earlier post, I wrote about what the Bible actually is because many people are truly confused about the Bible. They think that it is a single coherent narrative with a consistent theological view point despite the fact that it is really a disparate collection of writings that show a great variety of views. …
Incremental changes
In permaculture design, one of the principles is to make the least change for the greatest effect. One of the reasons to do this is to ensure that one doesn't overdo something--like I did while trimming my beard the other day which left me with some designer stubble rather than a full beard...Another reason, in …
Bible 101: What is the Bible?
For many people the question posed by the title of this post will be easy to answer and may even cause them to feel perplexed as to why it's a question at all. Their answer would simply be, "It's the Word of God," or they might perhaps quip that it's humanity's Basic Instructions Before Leaving …
The Tattooed Theologian 