#religion

The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

May 1, 2008
3 min

Is Reading Scriptures Literally, Literally Wrong?

blog post today by Father Stephen, an Orthodox priest about the problems with taking scriptures literally. On this blog, I have tended to focus on how insisting on taking scriptures literally leaves us vulnerable to being unable or unwilling to deal with reality or to losing our faith altogether when our literal understanding comes into conflict with reality. Father Stephen points out another, probably more important problem with a literal approach to scriptures: it engende

Apr 13, 2008
4 min

The Mind, New Ideas and the Living Word

I have been noticing a phenomenon lately which has probably always been present in humanity: a seeming inability to hear new ideas. I’m not speaking even of being unable to understand new ideas, which is pretty understandable. What I am observing is an inability to even recognize when a new idea is being put forth. There seems to be an unconscious assumption that there are a set group of possible ideas about a variety of issues and therefore everything you will read, see o

Apr 10, 2008
5 min

The Proverbs 31 Woman

However, the fact of the matter is that this is in the bible, so it must be there for a reason, so simply writing it off as unrealistic and ignoring it isn’t really a good option for us. Yet it’s a totally impossible vision of womanhood. So what are we to make of it? As I mentioned yesterday, one of my rules for studying scripture is that when the bible appears to be contradicting itself or real life, that is usually a “red marker” which indicates a place where we need to dig

Apr 9, 2008
6 min

Women’s Roles in the Bible

1. If the bible is unchanging, then it can not have been intended to communicate one thing to the people to whom it was originally given and something entirely different today. If our modern common sense reading of scripture is in conflict with how the ancients would have understood the same verses, then our modern understanding is wrong, no matter how obvious, universally held or apparent it is. 2. Where the bible appears to be in conflict with its self or with the real wor

Apr 8, 2008
2 min

Self-Dependence

When I was a senior in high school, I came across a poem which became my moral compass in a way, for my life ever since. It’s called Self Dependence by Matthew Arnold (you probably had to read his poem “Dover Beach” in high school): Self Dependence WEARY of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At the vessel’s prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o’er the starlit sea. And a look of passionate desire O’er the sea and to the stars I send

Mar 30, 2008
5 min

Raising Christian Evolutionists

I wrote a post on why parents who teach their children creation science or intelligent design in a way which elevates those teachings to a fundamental of the Christian faith are putting their children’s long term spiritual well being at risk. In the comments on that post (which were remarkably civil for this topic BTW, thank you to all who commented!), someone asked how I teach my kids to be faithful Christians while also accepting the science of evolution and geology and su

Mar 6, 2008
3 min

Beliefism’s Co-joined Twin, Biblism

“Beliefism” which for some people, is living as a parasite off its co-joined twin, “Bibleism”. Now, let me be clear, I believe in the authority of scripture, I believe that it is the inspired word of God, I have and continue to study it. However, the truth of the matter is that there is a lot of abuse which goes on around the bible. So many people become “Beliefists” because they cannot see the difference between their interpretation of scriptures and scripture itself. Th

Mar 5, 2008
5 min

Beliefism is poison

Christianity has literally tens of thousands of denominations. Which can’t be honoring to God; the unity of the body of Christ seems to be very important to God. Jesus talked about the desire for us to be one. Paul speaks repeatedly of the need for Christian believers to be unified. And yet, we keep splitting up, often acrimoniously. Of course this isn’t particularly new; the early Christian church was much more diverse than we often realize. What drives these divisions,

Feb 12, 2008
3 min

Jesus, Virtuous Vanilla Lip Balm, and a Prostitute

I wrote an article recently for a magazine about “The Jesus Brand”. It basically revolved around our relationship as Christians with Christian retailing, but if I had seen this doozy of a product line before writing it, I may well have gone in a different direction with it: The tagline on the webpage says “Look your Sunday best! Guaranteed to help you be worthy and get noticed by the King of Kings”. You can also get a “Looking good for Jesus” shopping bag, bubble bath, han

Feb 8, 2008
5 min

“My yoke is easy and my burden is light . . .”

Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 This is one of these verses which sounds nice and for a while you can take comfort in it. Until things really just get pushed too far and you realize that you have no idea what the blazes it’s supposed to mean and it doesn’

Feb 8, 2008
1 min

NT Wright

N.T. Wright is a wonderful Episcopalian bishop (yes there is such a thing). I don’t have time to comment on it now, but he’s just written a book called Surprised by Hope which Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed has been discussing. Someone there linked to this wonderful interview with Rev. Wright in Time magazine. In his book Wright is looking at how over time, we’ve moved away from the ancient understanding of resurrection, heaven and the after life and substituted our own

Feb 8, 2008
3 min

Christians as a “Creative Minority”

I came across a great quote today from Pope Benedict which presents a way of thinking about living an authentic Christian life in our modern, western world: We do not know what the future of Europe will be. Here we must agree with Toynbee, that the fate of a society always depends on its creative minorities. Christian believers should look upon themselves as just such a creative minority, helping Europe to reclaim what is best in its heritage and thereby to place itself at th

Jan 28, 2008
3 min

A prayer to begin your day with

As my family and friends who read this blog already know I was raised Catholic. I stopped considering myself Catholic over a decade ago because I believe the RCC to be in error on a great number of issues. However, I do think that the Catholic Church has managed to hold on to some old wisdoms about and tools for the Christian faith which most Protestants aren’t well aware of. An example of this would be some of the old, stuffy prayers which Evangelicals in particular tend

Jan 26, 2008
8 min

The Emerging Church Promise and Failure Part 2

In my last post, I looked at how the emerging church movement is trying to re-construct Christianity in regards to praxis, or the living of a Christian life. Today I’m going to look at the emerging church’s approach to doxology. Part 2: Doxology or “Doing” Church” To start, I want to acknowledge that I’m using the word “Doxology” in an unorthodox way. Technically doxology refers to a statement of praise and glory to God. The two we are most familiar with are “Glory to the

Jan 12, 2008
5 min

Emerging Church – Promise and Failure Part 1

Over the last couple of months, I have been looking into something called the “Emerging Church” movement. This movement seems to be seeking to reform the evangelical church in light of the failures of the evangelical movement to bear transformational fruit in the lives of individuals and the larger community. There are things that are happening, being talked about and experimented with in the Emerging Church movement which I think are very, very good for the church body as a