February 2012
3 posts
“Among the many possible meanings the word “God” carries, none is...”
– Huston Smith, The Soul of Christianity
2 tags
Phony Theology?
Perhaps I am a heretic. Maybe that is simply the easiest solution to the theological debates that run through my head and my near constant consternation with the literal interpreters of the Bible. Perhaps I simply do not get it. Perhaps I am lost and do, indeed, need to be saved. Naw, I don’t buy that for a second.
There are too many internal inconsistency in the biblical text itself for me...
August 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Huffington Post: Four Good Reasons Not To Read The... →
6 tags
Finding Common Ground?
In book study at church Wednesday, we were asked to name a “churchy word” we have wrestled with. My word was “literalism.” I struggle a great deal more with the application than I do with the word itself. For me, I regularly wonder how a literal reader of the Bible and a metaphorical reader (like myself) can have a meaningful conversation about their faiths.
It has been...
July 2011
3 posts
3 tags
“Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not...”
– Rob Bell (via beyondthesemountains)
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Changing truth
Drawing truth out of a life situation or written text is like pulling on an elastic band. We reach into the text and pull out a truth, as we would pull on an elastic band while the other end remains anchored in the text. We may examine the truth carefully and be guided by it in some very important ways. But when we finish defining and analyzing the truth, we release it back into the text. The...
June 2011
6 posts
4 tags
Save Us All by Tracy Chapman (a clip)
My God...
6 tags
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Eulogy: Evelyn (Thomas) Lambert
All my life, I have loved to write. I am constantly putting pen-to-paper. Sometimes just to see what happens, and sometimes with a clear purpose in mind. There has never been a time, though, that I had more purpose to my writing than when I sat down to remember the life of my Nannie: Evelyn Lambert. The words flowed through me like never before. Truly, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit...
3 tags
Not Living Right (Or: Thoughts On An Intervening...
I’m not altogether sure how I feel about the the notion of a deity setting the universe into motion, but I am all but certain there is no bearded gentleman in the sky intervening in the daily lives of everyone on the planet. So, I was taken aback when someone told my wife that my family’s recent string of bad luck (our son had a minor accident, he got a stomach bug, and we had two...
“The history of Jesus is not the story of a single figure over his life’s...”
– Robin Griffith-Jones, The Four Witnesses (p. 21)
April 2010
2 posts
Finding faith...
I have not grown up in a church. In fact, as I grew up (especially in high school) I was highly skeptical of religion. I have always considered myself a Christian, but what that might have meant early in my life I am not exactly sure. I am coming more clearly to know what it means to be Christian. As I figure this out, I find myself more clearly divided from what is the traditional Church. And...
“[W]e sense in the gospel a perpetual fountain of youthful newness, an ongoing...”
March 2010
2 posts
“Our faith is vain and self-centered if it only brings blessing for us or to us....”
How long is too long? Or, can you go back again?
I am constantly thinking about my faith. I endeavor to practice my faith. I read about my faith. I long to be a part of a community of faith. There is a little church I love. There is a community that makes me feel welcome, and there is a pastor that is what I believe pastors should be. For any number of reasons, I don’t go to Sunday services there.
I don’t generally feel comfortable...
February 2009
1 post
Reflection on the Spong Lecture in Houston
I attended Spong’s lecture Friday night at St. Paul’s UMC. (I was going to go Saturday too, but was unable to make it.) Spong was thought provoking and controversial as usual, but I spent a lot of time thinking about who was there to listen to him … and what it might mean for what he is trying to accomplish.
The overwhelming majority of the audience was white. Many were clearly...
January 2009
3 posts
4 tags
“What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God...”
– Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (p. vi)
December 2008
1 post
Progressive Christian Cooperative →
From the web site:
The Progressive Christian Cooperative, located in Atlanta, Georgia, serves the Southeast by:
connecting progressive communities of faith and individuals that feel isolated in a conservative theological landscape
supporting individuals and congregations in developing worship, study and prayer lives that spring from a progressive theological foundation
providing regular...
November 2008
7 posts
1 tag
Spong: A Call for a New Reformation →
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Spong, New Christianity: Chapter One
A New Christianity for a New World, Chapter One: A Place to Begin
“The primary question I seek to raise in this book is this: Can a person claim with integrity to be a Christian and at the same time dismiss, as I have done, so much of what has traditionally defined the content of the Christian faith?” (Spong, p. 7)
I have already come to the conclusion such a claim can be made with...
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Spong, New Christianity: Preface
“I write only to issue an invitation to come and listen, to explore these possibilities, and to see if by traveling on a new road we can enter the reality of the God beyond theism and hear the voice of Christ speaking in the vocabulary of a post-Christian world” (John Shelby Spong, A New Christianity for a New World, p. xxii).
For me, this is the power of what Bishop Spong offers....
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“At the same time, and at the opposite pole from individualism, melancholy in...”
– Huston Smith, The Soul of Christianity (p. xxiv)
2 tags
“People who think of God as a warrior may become warriors themselves, whether in...”
– Marcus Borg, The God We Never Knew as quoted @ http://godquest.org/quotes.htm
Trying Again...
I have tried to maintain a blog about my faith and religion in general a number of times. This is probably my fourth attempt; I have lost count. With that said, I am trying again, and I am looking forward to a much more successful venture this time around. Here is what I hope to do…
Keep track of my thoughts on books that I am reading.
Make general comments on things that I see, hear, and...
