Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Christian Issues

The Patriarchy Shop

by Sara Roberts Jones in Christian Issues

A small gold bell above the front door rang, announcing a new customer. A young woman stepped into the richly-decorated interior of the Christian Patriarchy Shop.

The shopkeeper, dressed in a tailored dark suit, leaned over the polished oak and marble counter. “Welcome! If you want life the way God wants life, you’ve come to the right place! How may I help you?”

The woman smiled tentatively. “Hi. I’m looking for a new one of these. I was told I had to get it here.”

She laid a large purse on the counter top. It was dark leather. Stamped on the front in faded yellow letters was:

life

“I just turned twenty-two,” she added. “I’m ready for a bigger one.”

The shopkeeper smiled. “I’ve got exactly what you need!” He opened a cabinet and withdrew another bag. It was much larger. Engraved into its smooth leather surface in flowing silver letters was:

Life.

“This is ideal for a woman in your situation,” he explained. “See how much bigger it is. There’s a special pocket here to store your heart — I assume you locked it away in a box and you’ve given the key to your father?”

“Well…”

“And you’ll see that this bag has lots of different sections. Here’s where you put your church ministry, here’s where you add your advanced homemaking skills, and don’t forget to fill up this baby pocket with lots and lots of longing! You can’t start wanting babies too soon.”

She examined the bag with interest. “It’s lovely, but I’m not sure it’s everything I need. I really love… [Read more…] about The Patriarchy Shop

We Have Met the Beast and It Is Us

by Josh Way in Christian Issues

Somehow this is still a thing. Christian leaders and politicians routinely make fearmongering overtures about “the antichrist,” “the beast,” the cosmic boogeyman who will bring about the End Times™ and coincidentally happens to be their ideological opponent. Just pick a public figure you don’t like, label them “dangerous,” throw in a vague appeal to “biblical prophecy,” and you’re good to go.

Even as we roll our eyes, we think we know exactly which Bible prophecy is being referenced: the book of Revelation and its warning of a coming antichrist. But it’s not simply that the words of Revelation are being misappropriated as contemporary political fodder, they have been completely misread and misunderstood in the first place. If we take an educated and careful look at the relevant passages, a very different picture comes into focus. Spoiler Alert: there is no singular “antichrist” figure in Revelation. There are several metaphorical “monsters” in the text, but the nearest contemporary analog for the beast in question is not a Muslim warrior, a popular Pope, or a socialist President. It’s something far more insidious and familiar.

(Actually) Reading Revelation

First things first, the word “antichrist” never appears in the text of Revelation. Something like it can be found in John’s epistles, but not here. There are “beasts” in Revelation, a few of them, and to put them into proper context we’ll need a quick overview of the whole thing.

The final book in the… [Read more…] about We Have Met the Beast and It Is Us

Dear Neighbors

by Brettany Renee Blatchley in Christian Issues, LGBT

America is my home. I love it for its landscape, its history, and especially its people. I grew-up here; I work here; I shop here; I go to church here; I raised a family here. I laugh, cry, live, and likely I will die here.

May I please share something intimate and important, something most people do not guess about my medical history? You see, I am a female person who has become a woman through her transgender nature and experience. My doctors and I have worked for years to help my body match the way my brain is wired. There are complicated reasons for this, and (for my case) the science is pointing to how I was formed in my mother’s womb.

Goodness! Why is this relevant to anything?

Well, it is important because I also use public bathrooms and change-areas. Yes, I know that’s “personal information,” and it should be … really, it should be. But what once was private for me, sadly may no longer be the case.

Some among us, mostly well-meaning people, grossly misunderstand people like me, and consider us to be a threat, even evil, for just existing as our authentic selves. Many assume God feels this way about us too.

That is difficult enough, but they also want it to be illegal for me to use the same bathroom and changing facilities that other women use, facilities I have used for years without incident.

In their eyes, nothing my doctors say, nothing science says, nothing I say, not my legal status, nothing that has or ever could be done to my body can… [Read more…] about Dear Neighbors

I’m an Evangelical Voter. No, Really …

by Michael L. Ruffin in Christian Issues, Current Events

I’m a Christian evangelical. To my way of thinking, “Christian” and “evangelical” are synonymous, since a Christian should live a life that bears witness with their attitudes, words, and actions to the good news of Jesus.

Somewhere along the way, though, people came to regard “evangelical” as synonymous with “conservative” and even with “fundamentalist.” Some folks think it’s not possible to be a “liberal evangelical.” Actually, one could make an excellent case that many liberal evangelicals reflect more of the way of Jesus in their ways of thinking, talking, and acting than do many conservative evangelicals.

It’s been interesting to observe how many of my more conservative evangelical sisters and brothers have approached the question of whom to support in recent elections.

When Barack Obama was running for president, lots of folks insisted that he was a Muslim and refused to believe his assertion that he was a Christian. I’m not sure it mattered to them whether he was Christian or Muslim. They weren’t sure which was worse: being a Muslim or being a liberal Christian. They figured that if Obama was a Christian, he wasn’t Christian enough, because he wasn’t their kind of Christian.

I understand that mindset, since I also sometimes judge the reality and quality of someone’s Christianity. Mainly, I’m troubled when a professing Christian seems to exhibit little awareness of what Jesus did and said. We’re supposed to be following him, after all, so I’m suspicious of… [Read more…] about I’m an Evangelical Voter. No, Really …

Even Jesus fell short of perfect love

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

I suspect most of you are familiar with the story. Mark and Matthew both tell the story with some variation (Mark 7:24-30; Matt. 15:21-28). It’s really quite remarkable that two of the canonical Gospels include it. A Gentile woman (Syrophoenician in Mark, Canaanite in Matthew) “begged” (Mark) Jesus to heal her daughter (“cast the demon out”). Jesus said, “Let the children [referring to Israel] be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). Refusing to be deterred, she persisted with wit and faith, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” In response, Jesus healed her daughter.

Evangelical commentators try to vindicate Jesus by either redefining love in more exclusive terms or by engaging in exegetical gymnastics with the text so that the text means something other than what it actually says. Even mainstream interpreters trained in historical-critical methodology generally resist questioning Jesus’s morality here. While they know that Jesus employs a racial slur to refer to Gentiles, they also know who pays their salaries. Even most mainstream Christians regard Jesus as flawless/sinless.

The straightforward meaning of the story suggests this woman taught Jesus a lesson in love and inclusion. Though it would seem somewhat difficult to deny the obvious, it is much easier when you are protecting your theology or your job. Being a pastor I understand this quite well. I’m fortunate that… [Read more…] about Even Jesus fell short of perfect love

Christian and Sexually Empowered

by April Kelsey in Christian Issues

A few years ago, the Church decided to start talking about sex–particularly, married sex. The Church wasn’t doing enough to address it. The sexual revolution had occurred, and the Church had suddenly acquired a reputation for being stuffy and avoidant on the topic. Young people wanted to know about God’s design for sex. Couples wanted to know that sex within marriage was wholesome and healthy, not shameful or dirty. So, the Church has been talking about sex. A lot.

What it hasn’t been talking about, though, is sexual empowerment.

Those words may seem foreign, even unthinkable, in a Christian context. But I believe embracing sexual empowerment is absolutely vital to having a healthy, thriving marriage.

First, it helps to define what sexual empowerment is. Our secular culture, like our churches, have a poor understanding of the term. To many people, sexual empowerment is equated with raunch and promiscuity. We claim that strippers and sex workers are empowered because they lack sexual inhibitions. They have thrown off traditional mores and use their sexual skills to profit for themselves. But that’s not what empowerment really is.

Empowerment is about exercising authority over what is rightfully yours. It is about knowing what you want and how to get it. It is about giving enthusiastic consent within the boundaries that you set. Sexual empowerment has nothing to do with aluminum poles and lingerie; rather, it is about confidence and… [Read more…] about Christian and Sexually Empowered

The Gospel of Hate

by in Christian Issues

Yesterday I was confronted with the gospel of hate. I was watching a TV show about a team of gay male cheerleaders. The show told about their personal stories as well as about the hate that they are regularly confronted with. Time and time again “Christians” would stand around them, telling them that they should be burned, that they are going to hell and that God hates them for what they are.

I was furious. It felt to me like some part of God’s heart for the lost and the broken exploded in my chest. What happened to the Gospel? How did it get to the point where we, as mere followers of Christ, replaced a Gospel of love with one of damnation, hate, and death? What gives us the right to take a message of love, showing God’s heart for all of us — including those cheerleaders — and turn it on its head to be replaced by a Gospel of hate? Have we forgotten what John 3:16 truly means?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but share in the glory of eternal life.” – John 3:16

I know some of you will think “But do they believe in God?” I don’t know the answer to that question. But I do know that we will never get the opportunity to tell someone about Christ if we continue to throw a Gospel of hate their way.

One of the guys on the show put it very clearly: “The more people hate on us, the more strength it gives us to say f*ck you, we will do it anyway.”

This broke… [Read more…] about The Gospel of Hate

Starting out in a Theology of Food: Beginning with the Eucharist

by Hunter C. Beezley in Christian Issues

Eating is nothing new. For many of us it has become so rudimentary in the patterns of our days that when we come to the table to feed our hunger, we often think of it merely as a means to an end. Food today has become a commodity, its value seen primarily in its taste, convenience, and price. When we think about it, we mostly view food as fuel to sustain our bodies in order to carry us on throughout the day.

I never cared much about food until my last semester in seminary. I took a class on a theology of food merely because one of my favorite professors was teaching it and I needed another elective to graduate. But by the end of the semester, I realized that this class would stick with me for a while. Nearly a year later, I still cannot help but talk about food and faith.

It is telling that the first story in the Bible is a story about eating. It is in a garden that humanity is first placed and it is eating that ultimately leads to the inauguration of sin into the world. And it is within Christianity that consuming food–namely the Lord’s Supper–functions as the central practice of corporate worship.

Still, food is not often seriously considered in theology. Because we tend to view it merely as fuel, the relationship many of us have with food is filled with anxiety and stress as we wrestle with the daily question “what do I eat for dinner?” We know that food can do something for us: make us fat or skinny, sleepy or ill; but we have lost the wonder and mystery of… [Read more…] about Starting out in a Theology of Food: Beginning with the Eucharist

Give me a deeply moving experience over a deeply held belief every time!

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

Last year April Kelsey wrote a viral post for this blog which played off the phrase “deeply held religious belief.” I’m sure we all know Christians who seek to justify injustices and prejudices on the basis of their deeply held religious beliefs. I suspect we are all guilty of this to some degree.

I would like to suggest that the two people most responsible for our Christian faith today, the historical Jesus and the Apostle Paul, were first and foremost shaped by deeply moving religious experiences that in turn helped form their deeply held religious beliefs.

Many of us learned of the story of Paul’s conversion (scholars today opt for the word “calling”) to the living Christ in Sunday School. Paul mentions it in at least three of his authentic letters (Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Philippians) and Luke imaginatively offers his take on the encounter in three separate places in Acts (9, 22, 26).

Before this encounter there is no question that Paul clung to some deeply held religious beliefs. Unhealthy, life-diminishing beliefs are held by their adherents just as strongly as those who hold to healthy, life-affirming beliefs. My point here is that Paul’s transformation was the result of an encounter with the unconditional forgiveness and love of God expressed through Christ. His experience served to reshape and reform what he believed about God.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, it was a divine experience that sent Jesus out healing, preaching, and teaching about the kingdom of… [Read more…] about Give me a deeply moving experience over a deeply held belief every time!

How to Cherry-Pick the Bible

by Matthew Distefano in Christian Issues

I have a love/hate relationship with the Bible. I mean, I really love the book. I do. I find it fascinating. But at the same time, I have a long and painful history of wrestling—and mostly losing—with and against many of the biblical texts. Sure, most of the troubling passages are in the Old Testament, but mentioning that fact never really helps if I’m supposed to believe in an eternal God who is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

Plus, in the pre-millennial, dispensationalist way I was taught to “clearly” read Revelation, that Janus-faced monster God who demands blood in order to forgive sins was coming back with a vengeance. Jesus may have kept dear old dad medicated for a while, but due to rising healthcare costs his lithium isn’t covered any longer, and he is coming back pissed. The only silver lining I had when I bought into this theology was that we just happened to live in the in-between, so perhaps God still kind of resembled first-century Jesus. Perhaps.

If you’ve read my book or my articles, you know that I no longer buy this lie about our Abba. Instead it’s my view that “God is like Jesus” and “theology begins at the cross.” In my forthcoming book, From the Blood of Abel, I’ll give an overview of how I came to believe in a God such as this, but for now, just know that I got there … somehow.

In reality, the most difficult part of “getting there” was the Bible. That is, until I heard some guy… [Read more…] about How to Cherry-Pick the Bible