Spike Lee on the United Church of Christ Rev. Jeremiah Wright:
The more he opens his mouth, the more damage he does … If he loves Obama he needs to shut up right now. It makes me question his motives for talking. I’m starting to wonder whether somebody has been contributing to the building funds of his church. Seriously.
Thank you Spike for finally saying what needs to be said!
Have you considered Evangelicals for Social Action? I have; I just joined as a member too! It is very likely that the continued rise of such culturally relevant and biblically solid Evangelical expression will render newer and thinner expressions pointless and maybe even a tad silly too (the more videos like this I watch, the less I want to hang out with either side).
Suggestion: If you are looking for something deeper, don’t toss out all of Evangelicalism just because a whole bunch of people may have not expressed it as well as it could have been. Don’t buy into the latest book-selling gimmick or popular fad. Just dive even deeper into faith and history and do it right yourself. You may find others who will happily join you on this deep journey at Evangelicals for Social Action.
Incidentally, ESA was founded by Ron Sider - author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (these books, according to the web site, articulate ESA’s vision). Read More
I signed up to be on the mailing list for the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) while I was in Beirut in 2006. The following communique re: Bishop Boulos Faraj Rahho of the Chaldean Church in Iraq came this morning. I would not even be aware this was happening, if it were not for the MECC mailing. Read More
Our first five months of church planting in Lancaster City have been incredible. The Spirit has brought together a group of people who are like-minded but staunchly individual. No, individualism is not a bad thing! In fact, I think it is often reduced to a sad position somewhere close to the receiving end of a desperate reaction resulting from a failure in authentic inter-personal community. Yes, community still works in settings wherein different ideas, concepts, and beliefs exist. In other words, community and diversity play well together, if leaders choose to celebrate the larger aspects of life that unite. We are doing this in the city. Why? Because the Kingdom Jesus pointed towards is a community of individuals. The individual aspect of this radical way of being community should never be sacrificed for the sake of “being community.” In fact, when this happens, the community becomes something other than the one pointed to by Jesus.
We also have boundaries. The aforementioned community characteristic (individual diversity + dedicated like-mindedness = community) is only as viable as the ethos of the community itself. This communal ethos is a direct byproduct of a diverse group of individuals working together to find that place that represents something much larger than themselves around which they can authentically unite. This ethos requires conversation and development. It also requires care once it is located and agreed upon by individuals. All of this requires real boundaries. An ethos lacking boundaries is not an ethos at all! Identity is immutably rooted in ethos and vice-versa. Things like this require conversation, development, nurture, care, and time. Read More
The testimonies of the deeper Christian life contained in V. Raymond Edman’s They Found the Secret: 20 Transformed Lives that Reveal a Touch of Eternity are as challenging as they are inspirational. I was deeply moved by each story. There are so many, many familiar names included in this book. The familiarity of these names speaks for itself. They are familiar because the individuals to whom they point are beyond remarkable. Each of these people earned this characterization not because of something inherent to themselves, but because they actually died to self. They became less, so Christ Jesus could become more. History cannot help but to celebrate people who authentically seek, find, and live the deeper Christian life. It’s all about holiness. Read More
Jesus and his simple way are anything but ordinary. Jesus’ way is simple, but it is anything but ordinary. Jesus’ way is extraordinary, in its simplest form!
So, I guess I’m asking if you see simplicity itself as extraordinary; or beyond extraordinary. Complications, shallowness, and distractions are rooted in the world’s ordinary or everyday way of being and doing. These are the sorts of things upon which all of those things we are so tired of are built. Popular Christian words and spiritual sounding catch-phrases flow from these sorts of things; simplicity is the foundation of the extraordinary way of Jesus of Nazareth. Read More
I am reading through Mike Erre’s The Jesus of Suburbia. Wow! What a great and timely read this book is! It is a fairly light and easily understandable read, but it is not meant for the faint of heart. It is a piercing indictment of most of American Evangelical Christianity. So, if you are quite comfortable there, then you may want to take a pass on this one. It wastes zero time getting to the point too. The following excerpt is lifted directly from the third and fourth pages of the introduction: Read More
God intends to be known. We all desire to know God intimately, deeply, and personally. Our instinctive longing for authentic intimacy with God is often hijacked by a subtle and deceptive misappropriation powered by a variety of seductive, carnal, and detrimental vices and temptations of a corporeal nature. It’s quite hard to figure out what to do with this “God-shaped hole” living deep within each one of us. We are offered a myriad of substitutions, fillers, and replacements, but the real thing is the only thing that will ever do. We all need God. So, where do we look for God? Where can we hear from God? The answer to this question is ridiculously simple, in spite of the seemingly endless stream of audible ideological voices and philosophical sales pitches persistently vying for our immediate attention and allegiance. Read More
Luke Timothy Johnson and Eve Tushnet’s views re: homosexuality are articulated so powerfully in a June 15th Commonweal article titled Homosexuality & the Church: Two Views (Volume CXXXIV, Number 12). Read More
We are living in one of those remarkable periods in Christian history. These periods roll around every few hundred years or so, it seems. These are times laden with days in which the ‘ole approach to life and living nostalgically referred to as “the way things have always been done” gets all messed up, and permanently too! The familiar is exposed as something ephemeral and it is discarded for new, unexpected, unimagined, and unavoidable potential and possibility. We know we must continue to do, but we know we must do differently. Today, the way we “do” Christianity is changing. The way we “do” church is changing too. Our faith practice and ecclesiology are gradually being altered. It is all changing, even as I write this essay. Read More