Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

John Shore

“Is hell real?” What are we, six-year-olds?

by in Christian Issues

Asking whether or not hell is real is like asking your teammates in a football huddle whether or not they think it’s possible, from your team’s current position on the field, to sink a three-point basket.

Wrong question.

Wrong game.

Missing the point.

Here’s something I hate: conversations that ostensibly are about answering a question to which, in fact, there is no knowable answer. Getting stuck in a conversation like that transmogrifies my poor little brain into a crack-snorting hamster on a wheel.

So, to state something so obvious I should be embarrassed to type it: No one has any idea — none, zero, zilch, nada, void, total blank — what happens to anyone after they die.

It could be that heaven is awaiting some of us. Or all of us. It could be that hell is waiting for some or all of us. Could be a Dairy Queen awaitin’. Could be a dentist’s office. Could be a six-room igloo. Could be interplanetary pinochle tournament.

No. One. Knows. It’s. Not. Knowable.

And if at this moment you’re inclined to grab your Bible, stop yourself. It’s not in there. You can pretend the Bible tells you what happens to people after they die, but you wouldn’t be fooling even yourself. Paul enjoins us to give up childish things, and you can’t get more childish than pretending the Bible is a magical window that lets you see beyond life.

Trying to use the Bible as proof of what happens after we die is like trying to use a telescope to row a canoe. Wrong… [Read more…] about “Is hell real?” What are we, six-year-olds?

Unfundamentalist Christians: That’s we in the corner

by in Christian Issues

We ended up launching this Unfundamentalist Christians group blog before we had ready our Official Introductory post. Lame, we know. But once we were all dressed up and everything, we figured that we’d crash the party first, and then make with the greetings. It’s been our experience that that’s really the best way for us to reduce our chances of getting summarily booted from wherever we’ve shown up.

Hi! We’re the Unfundamentalist Christians! Nice to meet you! Thanks for having us, Patheos! We’ll totally try not to break anything.

What’s that? How did we come about? Why, how ravishingly kind of you to ask. Well, UC was founded by super-famous author and blogger John Shore. As John wrote in this post on his blog:
To my mind, the Christianity on the left was too tenuous, while the one on the right was too … rabid. I didn’t want a Christ who was essentially an inspired social worker who got jumped by the authorities, and I sure didn’t want the one who had been twisted into serving the craven needs of bigoted, power-crazed, fear-mongering misogynist homophobes.
He was, as he put it, a Christian without a Christianity.

So then John wrote the UC tenets below. Then UC became a Facebook Page, which you should go like right now. Then that page was liked by over 14,000 people (as of July 2, 2016, it’s now 66,379 people). Then John and the folks who admin that page decided to start a group blog. Then Patheos was kind enough to offer to host that blog. And, well, now… [Read more…] about Unfundamentalist Christians: That’s we in the corner

A spontaneous prayer about the DOMA ruling

by in Uncategorized

As you’re probably by now aware, today the Supreme Court declared a 1996 law denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples (the shamefully named Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional.

When huge things happen in my life—things I know I can no sooner consciously process than I can fly a space shuttle—I turn to God. In this case, I want to thank God. I just learned of this ruling. So I thought that I would type my thanks/prayer as they’re actually happening in my heart and mind, and so in that very direct and personal fashion commune with you around this mind-bogglingly joyful occasion.
Dear God:

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We’re slow. We’re afraid; we take our time; we’re always happy to let the next guy solve the problem we started.

We know justice needs doing; we balk at doing it ourselves.

But gottdangit if all along you’re not watching: if you’re not caring, if you’re not tracking our relationship with the justice that we so readily claim that we want.

And slowly but surely, inch by inch–and despite our constant and petulant resistance–you move us toward that justice. You walk us to the truth. You bring us to do the thing that must be done: the right thing, the truthful thing, the thing that it was always your will that we do.

Finally and gloriously, you make your will ours.

You make us win. You do that to us first as individuals, and then as a nation. And I know that you are doing the same thing to all of us,… [Read more…] about A spontaneous prayer about the DOMA ruling

An open letter to Exodus International's super-remorseful Alan Chambers

by in LGBT

Dear Mr. Chambers:

I am writing in regard to your apology yesterday for all the devastating things that your “ex-gay” organization, Exodus International, has done to LGBTQ people and their families over the past thirty-seven years. It’s so heartening when a person apologizes for how wrong they’ve been.… [Read more…] about An open letter to Exodus International's super-remorseful Alan Chambers