Wrestling with the Bible (#sermon #podcast)
Last weekend, I preached on wrestling with the Bible. We looked at the Tower of Babel story as an example and tried to interpret it first taking everything at face value and then with the love-oriented...
View ArticleThe Bible has room for more than one gay Christian story
A couple of weeks ago, at Wheaton College, a very interesting dialogue happened. The campus had organized a speaking event for ex-gay activist Rosaria Butterfield whose story of converting from a...
View ArticleTwo Biblical commands no Christian will ever obey
I’ve been at the Ecclesia National Gathering in DC. It’s a network of moderate evangelicals who use the word “missional” a lot and plant churches and stuff like that. We just had a presentation from...
View ArticleWhy English majors make lousy fundamentalists
I think that the reason many Christians can’t understand each other, particularly with regard to how we read the Bible, may end up boiling down to different personality types. I am an INFP, according...
View ArticleWhen “the Bible is perfectly clear” becomes the reason it can’t teach us...
I’ve noticed a gap between what feels right to say about the Bible in the abstract and what actually happens when we read the Bible as part of our daily discipleship. When many Christians talk about...
View ArticleThree arguments for Biblical inerrancy that need to be retired
One of the most important books I read in seminary was evangelical Old Testament scholar Peter Enns’ Incarnation and Inspiration, which offers a way of understanding the Bible in which its authority...
View ArticleTwo offensive analogies in the gay marriage debate from David Gushee and...
During the past couple of weeks, two arguments have surfaced on opposite sides of the gay marriage debate that are based upon offensive analogies (or “provocative” ones, depending which side you’re...
View ArticleOn self-serving appeals to God’s sovereign “natural” order
In response to the backlash against Barack Obama’s Prayer Breakfast remarks about violence that had been justified in the name of Christianity, Tah-nehisi Coates wrote an article in which he shared a...
View ArticleSix scriptures I would use to address Kevin DeYoung’s 40 questions for...
Kevin DeYoung’s 40 questions for rainbow-flag waving Christians has been making rounds across the internet along with excellent responses from Alise Chaffins, Ben Irwin, AW Hooker, and Matthew Vines,...
View ArticleAn Honest Question for Christians Who Say They “Obey” the Bible
I wanted to ask an honest question. It’s partly a loaded question, but partly a recognition that my experience isn’t universal. If you’re a Christian who likes to talk about “submitting to the Bible’s...
View ArticleSeven points of contention in today’s reformation
So it’s that time of year known as Reformation Sunday when we remember the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral on October 31, 1517. Most people...
View ArticleTwo Corinthians 3:17: why I love Donald Trump’s favorite verse
Everyone is making fun of Donald Trump for saying “Two” instead of “Second Corinthians” in his recent convocation address at Liberty University. I honestly don’t think it’s that big a deal. What Trump...
View ArticleWhy don’t we call God “they” instead of “he”?
For Christmas this year, I got Andrei Rublev’s Trinity icon. It is the most beautiful picture of God that I’ve ever seen. Each member of the Trinity is enraptured with the other two in a gaze of sweet,...
View ArticleWhat Romans 1 teaches about sin and why it ironically exonerates LGBT identity
Romans 1:18-32 is one of the most important passages in scripture, because it describes the nature of sin. Specifically, it shows how idolatry is the foundation for injustice, and moreover, how sin...
View ArticleA prophecy and two visions from Acts for our United Methodist General Conference
The book of Acts is supposed to model for us how the early church engaged in discernment and made its decisions. Surprisingly, the one thing we do not see the apostles do is consult scripture as a...
View ArticleTwo different ways to define orthodoxy
What does it mean to be orthodox? It depends on which definition of the Greek word doxa you’re using. Ortho always means straight, right, or true, but doxa has two possibilities. For Aristotle and the...
View Article“Why is it our problem if a gay Muslim shoots a bunch of other gay people?”
I knew the comment was coming. I was bracing for it. My heart sank when I first heard that the shooter was Muslim and it sank again when I found out he was gay. Not because it would make it any more or...
View ArticleIntersectionality for bewildered white evangelicals
In the Washington Post this week, white evangelical millennial leader Katelyn Beaty said, “I can’t defend my people. I barely recognize them.” 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. As Trump...
View ArticleWhy would anti-racist training be threatening to a white seminary professor?
“Of course, so-called anti-racism is anti-intellectual. It is also totalitarian and genocidally racist.” That’s definitely the wackiest comment I received in response to my open letter to Paul...
View ArticleThe Theology That Pardons White Supremacy
Last night I witnessed a white United Methodist pastor seeking to justify Donald Trump’s pardon of infamously racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio by appealing to Jesus’ cross. Since Jesus’ sacrifice...
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