Why Christianity Needs Gay People
Now that I’ve processed a large portion of my recovery from ubf, I am free to rebuild and rework my theology. Two years ago, in October 2012, I was inspired by the bible story of Esther to come out as a Christian gay rights pacifist. Since then I’ve been consumed by addressing the elephant in the room in all Christian circles: gay people. I began a meticulous search through Scripture to find out what made Christians so anti-gay or at best merely tolerant of the LGBTQA people. That study has now lead me to write my fourth book, a book that has no mention of ubf or my recovery; a book with the working subtitle: “Why Christianity Needs Gay People”.
How do other people react to you?
Ok so today’s article comes right from Brian’s beer church. For about two years now, I have not attended a church service, apart from visiting my friends at WestLoop Church and worshiping with Ben and their wonderful community a couple times. Instead I’ve been participating in a plethora of online discussions and writing books on Sunday (and no not every Sunday is beer Sunday, today is coffee day!) One of the online groups I’ve come to love is called the Progressive Christian Alliance. I feel compelled to share an experience I had this week with the alliance.
Your food sucks!
How do you help a group of people whose lives are intertwined with a failing organization? How do you get through to owners who are in denial about the state of their organization? Robert Irvine’s TV show does just that, over and over again. Recently, in May 2014, the show “Restaurant Impossible” aired its 100th episode. I’ve watched all of the shows up to Season 7, so I still have some catching up to do. To put it mildly, I have been enthralled by this show and by the TV personality, Robert Irvine. The premise of the show is that restaurant owners contact the Food Network and apply to get help from Robert for their restaurant in danger of closing. Robert goes into the restaurant and has a total of 36 hours and $10,000 dollars to save the restaurant. I was stunned by the process and how Irvine goes about this restaurant-saving work. Could there be implications here for the church? I think so.
Not Understanding Older Brother Sins
Is the older brother a “bad” sinner? For over two decades, whenever I studied the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32), I fully understood and resonated with the (disgusting immoral) sins of the younger son: selfishness, greed, lust, licentiousness, promiscuity, spendthrift, disrespectful, inconsideration, fatalism, hedonism and the like. But with the older son, I might say or think, “Oh yeah, he’s a sinner too, but he doesn’t seem that bad. He’s kinda rude to his dad. He didn’t like his younger brother moving back home. At least he kept going to church (stayed at home with his father) and he didn’t sleep around with prostitutes (which is a big deal!).” I did not understand “older brother sins,” as I did “younger brother sins.” Last year I tried to address The Sins of Older Christians, i.e. ME! Continue reading →
Sometimes we need Hero and Villain
Sometimes theologians and church people forget how culture expresses the “spirit of the times” and that such expressions can have something profound to teach the church. Often that great enemy, the secular world, is seen as entirely bad and merely a means to our mission. We forget there are human beings in that world, remarkable human beings who also have discovered amazing truths. So it is with the latest Disney movie Maleficent.
Tired of Talking About UBF
Note: this article is for those who have decided to remain in UBF but are endlessly frustrated. It is not for everyone to remain in UBF, so I understand and sympathize with those who have been wounded deeply and have left to find greener pastures. I am mainly addressing this article to myself: my hope is that I will continually turn my gaze from people to the triune and amazing God… and then eventually back to people in the context of being in God.
New UBF Heritage Guarding Website
Have you heard? UBF loyalists opened a new website recently. The purpose is to guard and protect and pass on the UBF heritage. Some people might have thought I was joking when I mentioned 12 things UBF taught me.
It is Very Good
In the last few weeks I have posted some content on this site that might be labeled as “critical” or “negative”. This obvious question I might get is “Why would you remain in UBF?”. I want to balance the claims and stories I have told with good things I have observed about UBF, and the grace that God has given to me here. I know that certain people will find what I say here to be offensive or maybe entirely false and I welcome them. I already know what you will say and I know what I am getting myself into here. I anticipate the common claim “You are being love bombed.” with the concession that this claim is unanswerable, because it is a claim about the motivations of people which I cannot know for sure. You are more than welcome to take this position, but I won’t answer it because I cannot.
Continue reading →
Book Review: God and the Gay Christian
In 1992, Pope John Paul II apologized to Galileo. 359 years earlier, Galileo and those who listened to his teachings were condemned by the church. The church said the bible clearly taught that the sun revolves around the earth. The invention of the telescope, however, and Galileo’s findings, demonstrated the opposite: the earth revolves around the sun. The centuries old teaching by the church was wrong. I think someday the church will also apologize to Matthew Vines, who steps into the epicenter of the LGBT-Christian debate with his new book, God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.
Continue reading →
American Evangelicalism: A Decadent Culture?
When you hear the phrase “decadent culture,” what characteristics come to mind? Eroding morals? Licentiousness and fornication? Gluttony and drunkenness? Collapse of family values? All of the above?
The literal meaning of decadent is “a state of decline or decay.” It seems to me that, if we strip away all the mental baggage of hedonism and go back to that simple definition, then it’s accurate to say that American evangelicalism is a decadent culture.
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