Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

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How do you know when you've had a divine encounter?

by Chuck Queen in Christian Spirituality

Not every experience of the Divine is as momentous as Mary’s encounter with the angel in Luke 1:26-38, but Mary’s experience can be seen as a kind of archetypal representation of what a divine encounter can do in our lives.

An authentic God experience generally gives us two things that are foundational to a healthy and transformative spiritual life. First, such experiences give us ground to stand on.

When the angel first appears Mary is fearful and perplexed. The angel says, “Greetings, favored one! . . . Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have favor with God.” Isn’t it interesting that almost every time God or an angel of God appears in the Bible, the first message communicated to the recipient is, “Do not be afraid!” It would seem that being fearful of the Divine has been a problem throughout human history.

The first thing Mary had to let go of was her fear.  And the first thing she needed to embrace was God’s love. Mary is assured, first of all, that she is favored, that she is loved by God. Mary is just an ordinary Jewish girl trying to get by in a patriarchal culture. It would have been quite normal for her to feel devalued and inferior.

All authentic God experiences beckon us to stand on the solid ground of God’s unconditional love. We hear God say, “You are my beloved daughter/son, on you my favor rests” (see Mark 1:11). This is not based on merit, status, or any accomplishment. It is God’s eternal disposition toward all God’s… [Read more…] about How do you know when you've had a divine encounter?

Are Non-LGBT-Affirming Christians Committing Blasphemy?

by Chuck Queen in LGBT

I believe that Christians who appeal to Jesus as the reason for their refusal to fully accept and affirm our LGBT sisters and brothers in the church are guilty of blasphemy. Why do I believe this? Because Jesus was the great boundary breaker, not the boundary maker. Consider the following:

First, Jesus was the great boundary breaker in the way he broke down barriers between the “righteous” and “sinners.” The meaning of these terms in the Gospels is usually based on sectarian categories (see especially Mark 2:13-17). “Sinners” is a term applied by the “righteous” to those who did not keep the law as the righteous understood and applied it. Sinners were excluded from religious life. Jesus demolished that barrier when he welcomed all “sinners” to eat with him. Eating together meant full acceptance and inclusion. New Testament scholar James D. G. Dunn aptly summarizes:
“Jesus’ practice of table fellowship was not only an expression of the good news of God’s kingly rule. It was also an implicit critique of a Pharisaic definition of acceptability, of a Pharisaic practice which classified many fellow Jews as sinners, effectively outside the law and the covenant . . . What to many Pharisees was a sinful disregard for covenant ideals was for Jesus an expression of the gospel itself. People they regarded as unacceptable, Jesus proclaimed by word and act to be the very ones God invited to his royal banquet.”

[Read more…] about Are Non-LGBT-Affirming Christians Committing Blasphemy?

Back to the ’90s: My Hometown (Again) Spurns the LGBT Community

by Don M. Burrows in Current Events, Fundamentalism, LGBT

Like many others, I was very disappointed earlier this week when my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where I was born, went to college, and worked for nearly a decade as a reporter, editor, and columnist, again repealed an anti-discrimination ordinance passed by the City Council.

Ordinance 119 gave legal protection from discrimination to gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals, but a vocal group from outside of the city, led by famous breeders Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, waged a campaign of fear and misinformation and successfully repealed it at the ballot box Tuesday.

For those from Fayetteville, it was history repeating itself.

The very same thing happened in 1998 when the city passed a resolution merely extending a similar policy to its own employees. The religious conservatives would have none of it then either, and spread similar libels, lies, and misinformation, leading to its repeal the following November.

I remember feeling hopeful then, as I did earlier this week, that Fayetteville could prove to the outside world how different it is from the rest of Arkansas on matters of diversity and inclusivity. But ultimately the votes then and now show that while the core of Fayetteville — the University of Arkansas and the downtown businesses that give the town its unique and interesting flavor — often does buck the unfortunately well-deserved stereotypes earned by the rest of the state, there is still enough anti-gay ideology simmering from its many… [Read more…] about Back to the ’90s: My Hometown (Again) Spurns the LGBT Community

The Misuse of Scripture (Southern Baptists seem to lead the way)

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues, Current Events

When our President issued his executive order giving deportation relief to millions of undocumented people in our country, as part of his explanation he quoted Scripture: “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9; also 22:21). This angered a number of conservative Christians who apparently felt they had a monopoly on the Bible.

Mark Coppenger, professor of Christian apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote a piece for the Religion News Service claiming that the President misused Scripture by running “roughshod over context.”

The irony of this is that the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in 2011 quoting this very Scripture as a basis for compassionate action. The resolution declared: “The Scriptures call us, in imitation of God Himself, to show compassion and justice for the sojourner and alien among us.” Following that declaration the Scripture the President quoted was listed along with several others.

Did Coppenger change his mind or did he never support the SBC resolution to begin with? My purpose here is not to critique Coppenger’s hypocritical hermeneutic. Mainline Biblical interpreters can easily tear his shoddy reasoning apart (see Mark Silk’s excellent critique at the same website).

The question I want to ask is: Could there be some bias at work behind the argument that the President misused Scripture? Could it be a general… [Read more…] about The Misuse of Scripture (Southern Baptists seem to lead the way)

Actual War on Black People Distracting from Fictional War on Christmas

by Don M. Burrows in Christian Issues, Current Events

I feel sorry for the Fox-News War-On-Christmas crowd.

This is normally the season of the year when they foment anger and offense at perceived slights anytime a city renames a Christmas parade a “holiday parade” or anytime retailers dare to remain inclusive with Season’s Greetings banners.

For them, the failure of anyone to use the word Christmas amounts to a “war,” yet the actual gunning down of statistically large numbers of unarmed black men is no real cause for concern.

It is perhaps the greatest sign of privilege that those who continually parrot a narrative of “Christian persecution” based on nativity scenes and holiday cards will bend over backward to excuse the literal war – the actual systematic killing of civilians by increasingly militarized police forces – being waged on poor black communities in our own country.

So we should feel pity, I guess, for current events ruining their War On Christmas season. Kirk Cameron’s silly Saving Christmas has a dismal 1.3 stars on IMDB, and the exaggerated slights against the holy day have taken a backseat to protests over the latest round of grand jury decisions failing to indict white officers for killing unarmed black men. Jesus, a brown-skinned transient and known practitioner of civil disobedience executed by a brutal police state, is indeed perhaps the reason for the season, just not in the way the War on Christmas crowd wants to talk about.

Instead, many white conservatives, mostly Christians, have been trying… [Read more…] about Actual War on Black People Distracting from Fictional War on Christmas

A Christmas Play Gone Awry (or maybe not)

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues, Christian Spirituality

One of my favorite Christmas stories is about a little church that traditionally had a Christmas play for all the children and the “adult children” who loved it just as much. There was a ten-year-old boy named Barry who had been a disaster in every Christmas play in which he had been involved. One year his angel wings caught on fire, which nearly burned down the church. The next year, as Herod the Great, he jumped from his throne and, in his usual clumsy way, jerked the carpet out from under the three wise men and dumped them on their heads.

The children begged the director not to let Barry ruin another Christmas play: “Please, teacher, could you leave Barry out this year?”

But how could she reject a little boy who tried his best and loved Jesus with all his heart, even if he was a bit clumsy? She was able to convince the other children that Barry couldn’t do any real damage by playing the innkeeper of Bethlehem. He just opened and closed a door and spoke one short line. What damage could he possibly do?

Barry made it through all the rehearsals and the dress rehearsal perfectly. Then, the big night arrived, when all the mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, friends and loved ones gathered to relive the Christmas story with their children. Barry was given a chance to redeem himself from all his previous mishaps. He opened the door of the inn and looked straight into the face of Mary and Joseph. Mary, very sad and pale, sat on a little donkey, which they had never… [Read more…] about A Christmas Play Gone Awry (or maybe not)

Last night our President sounded like Jesus

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

View image | gettyimages.com

Last night our President stretched his executive powers to the limit by providing deportation relief for several million undocumented people who have been living in the shadows in fear of deportation and separation from loved ones. And he never sounded more like Jesus. (Click here for the full text of his speech.)

4.4 million undocumented immigrants can now apply for permits that will allow them to work (and pay taxes) without fear of deportation.

There is no question that our current deportation laws are unjust, inhumane, and have inflicted great suffering on families by splitting them apart. So why would anyone with an ounce of compassion and concern for the common good not be pleased with the President’s executive order?

I was astonished at how angry and uncaring the Republican opposition appeared in their responses to the President’s speech. Rep. Lamar Smith from Texas, for instance, went so far to say, “I believe the President is actually declaring war on the American people and our democracy.”

I’m recalling some of stories in the Gospels where the religious gatekeepers of the time were infuriated with Jesus for violating the law against healing on the Sabbath.

On one such occasion, there was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue where Jesus had come to worship. The religious leaders watched Jesus like a hawk “to see if he would cure the man.”

Feeling their hatred for him, and their total lack of compassion for the suffering… [Read more…] about Last night our President sounded like Jesus

Being and Becoming Children of God

by Chuck Queen in Christian Spirituality

I grew up with a theology that said all children are children of God—that is, until they reach the age of accountability. I was also indoctrinated into a belief in total depravity: that we are all born sinners and inherit a sinful nature. Somehow we had to harmonize these two positions, and the way we did it was by postulating an age of accountability. It’s kind of ironic because we prided ourselves in being Bible believers, yet there are no biblical texts that mention an age of accountability.

We believed that a child was a child of God until that child reached a kind of semi-adulthood. When the child reached the age of accountability (and nobody really knowing when that was certainly made for a useful loophole), then he or she was no longer a child of God, and had to believe certain things and do certain things in order to become … well, a child of God. In other words, we believed that the child had to be “born again” in order to become a member of God’s family.

I have since evolved in my thinking about what it means to be a child of God, and what it means to be “born again.” I know many reading this post have as well.

The distinction I like to make at this point in my spiritual journey is that the distinction to be made here is between being and becoming. I’m convinced that we are all children of God all the time, and that there is nothing we can do, or believe, or fail to do or believe, that can change this fundamental truth about every single… [Read more…] about Being and Becoming Children of God

What the hell is Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler fired up about now?

by Don M. Burrows in Christian Issues, Fundamentalism

My friend John Shore sure stirred a hornets’ nest when he dared to imagine a Christianity without hell in in his recent post What Christianity without hell looks like.

Actually, to be more accurate, he stirred a nest of Southern Baptists, specifically the one feathered by Al Mohler, the denomination’s go-to pseudo-intellectual on, well, everything.

I’ve written before about Mohler’s penchant for having no clue what he’s talking about. Many times.[1] Anyone possessing a dollop of critical thought is capable of spotting the glaring problems in his arguments.

Mohler’s shtick is really just a variation of the Southern Baptists’ favorite creedal theme: If you doubt or question any part of what we teach, you might as well flush all of Christianity down the basement drain in the fellowship hall.

Mohler’s biggest fret, of course, is over “Biblical authority,” which is a doctrine, and not, in fact, a reasonable conclusion arrived at by those who have studied the Bible academically. For Mohler, “Biblical authority” consists of “being faithful to the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture,” which is, again, a doctrine — a doctrine that Southern Baptists and other conservative evangelicals care very much about, but not one believed by the vast majority of Christians worldwide.

Mohler takes Mr. Shore to task for his “hermeneutic,” and explains for his readers that “hermeneutics” are “the science or the discipline of interpreting the Scripture.” Related… [Read more…] about What the hell is Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler fired up about now?

To Gay-Affirming Christians Who Dismiss the "Third Way"

by in LGBT

The so-called “third way” is really very helpful. It has a lot of merit.

There. I said it. You can commence my crucifixtion now.

For those who are unfamiliar with the so-called “third way,” here’s a brief explanation. As far as I can tell,[1] the “third way” is a term popularized by Ken Wilson who is the Senior Pastor at the evangelical Vineyard Church in Ann Arbor, MI. In his book A Letter to My Congregation,[2] Pastor Wilson describes his own journey to acceptance of people who are gay. Using the apostle Paul’s example of dealing with the meat-eating controversy in Romans 14-15, the good pastor advocates allowing the sinfulness of homosexuality to be a “disputable matter” in the church (i.e., a matter on which faithful Christians can disagree). By taking this approach, the Vineyard congregation has decided to accept into full membership and leadership Christians who are in (or are pursuing) gay relationships.

Several months after Wilson’s book was published, a controversy arose when Pastor Danny Cortez wrote a letter to the estimable blogger John Shore detailing how he, too, has had a change of heart about the sinfulness of gay relationships, and how the Southern Baptist church he leads has now decided to become a “third way church” and “accept the LGBT community even though they may be in a relationship.”

Unsurprisingly, Al Mohler, the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had a conniption fit. His position is: When it comes to… [Read more…] about To Gay-Affirming Christians Who Dismiss the "Third Way"