Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Life was so simple before I died

by Eric Booth in Poetry

This guest post is by Eric Booth.

 

Life was so simple before i died
i was the center, i reasoned, i lied
the world was all mine; it’s all about me
don’t like it? too bad; i’m blind you see

i worked real hard at leavin’ my mark
just step on friends whenever i want
cut corners an’ cheat to make ends meet
my inside’s a mess; my outside’s so neat

life was so simple before i died
when things get tough, i’d go hide

people could learn a lot from me
arrogant an’ smug like me they should be
always lookin’ out for ol’ number one
controlin’ it all an’ gettin’ it done

life was so simple before i died
each time i get caught, i just lied
one selfish world steeped in sin
an’ i was the best; determined to win

so selfish an’ mean like everyone else
i ran from the truth to distance myself
old navy, gap, abercrombie & fitch
dad’s skipped town and mom’s a bitch

life was so simple before i died
watch tv while the whole world cried

acid an’ pot; extasy an’ coke;
what did it matter? life’s a big joke;
turn up the music; drown out the pain
my world was so perfectly lost insane

i’ve gotta lose weight; i’ve gotta have more
locked in my cell i stare at the door
no one would take me; no one would care;
when they might notice, its only to stare

mom doesn’t hear me; dad’s never here
party some more; hide all the tears
sex was the answer; the question was dumb.
just tryin’ to feel; i settled for numb

raised in the dark; longing for light
scared an’ confused; too tired to… [Read more…] about Life was so simple before I died

The best Christian book of the year

by in Uncategorized

Several years ago, I attended a church discussion group on the topic of women in ministry. The pastor leading the group spent the first forty-five minutes forcefully laying out the “biblical” case for why women aren’t allowed to be pastors.

After his diatribe, I asked him, “if women can’t be pastors, does that mean God withholds gifts of preaching and teaching from them? Or does he bless them with such gifts and then denies them their full use?” He equivocated and rehashed his talking points.

To me, the answers are clear: God doesn’t withhold these gifts from women. There are many women who have been blessed with gifts of preaching and teaching and leadership and who have been called by God to use these gifts to their fullest potential serving the Church. Any church that refuses to acknowledge, accept and celebrate the blessings that God is offering through these women is refusing God himself. Sadly, this rejection and exclusion continues to stymie the Kingdom of God in many churches.

But even within churches and denominations that accept women in leadership roles, challenges of gender, race and age don’t magically fade into irrelevancy. It’s challenging to be a pastor. It’s even more challenging to be a female pastor. The challenges faced by young, non-white, female pastors are Sisyphean. It’s easy to say we fully accept women in church leadership roles, but the realities of explicit and implicit biases are still all too pervasive within modern… [Read more…] about The best Christian book of the year

A queer feminist Muslim you should meet

by in Islam

The below originally appeared on Aaminah Khan’s terrific blog, Days Like Crazy Paving, where it was illustrated with the picture above and titled Muslim, queer, feminist: it’s as complicated as it sounds. I wanted to share it here (which I do with Aaminah’s permission) because I think it so perfectly illustrates the truth that we are all sailing in basically the same boat. Day by day I think we move toward one world. I love this particular step in that direction.

Take it away, Aaminah:… [Read more…] about A queer feminist Muslim you should meet

All we rogues together

by in Uncategorized

I’m not generally keen on acquiescing to authority. As a kid I couldn’t even manage to join the Cub Scouts. When I was just considering joining them, at some school function or something, the Grown Man Scout Leader—Sergeant Dad, or whatever he was called—barked, “Okay, new recruits! Line up! Let’s go! Single file!”… [Read more…] about All we rogues together

Samurai Ken Ham and the Biblical Watermelon

by in Christian Issues

As I’ve previously discussed, Ken Ham’s argument for Young Earth Creationism depends upon his slicing science into two kinds of science: historical and observational.

Ham contends that observational science, upon which everyone generally agrees, forms the basis of our modern technological accomplishments. But when it comes to historical science, Ham claims that we end up with profoundly different conclusions — for instance, evolution versus creation — because we’re analyzing the evidence from different worldviews. According to Ham, being a Christian (or a true Christian, anyway) means interpreting the historical scientific data through the Bible alone. If you’re not a Christian (or are simply a very misguided one), then you interpret the historical scientific data according to your own terribly flawed and sinful understanding.

To Ham, his interpretation of the historical evidence rests on God’s infallible Word, while everyone else’s interpretation of that evidence rests on their own utterly fallible assumptions. While Ham’s division of science is decidedly problematic (not to mention blatantly self-serving), there is a division to which all Christians really should pay attention: the text of the Bible and our interpretation of that text.

On the one hand we have the text of the Bible, written and collected and compiled and edited by many authors for many reasons over many, many years. Great! Unfortunately, we don’t have any of the… [Read more…] about Samurai Ken Ham and the Biblical Watermelon

What can movies tell us about the afterlife?

by in Book Reviews

What do our stories tell us about who we are? What do our songs, our books, our paintings and our movies reveal about the reality of our existence? Do our artistic expressions point toward deeper truths that lie beyond the merely physical, or is our creative output only a subjective reflection of our innate longings and desires?

In “Death at the Movies: Hollywood’s Guide to the Hereafter” (Quest Books), Lyn and Tom Davis Genelli wrestle with these questions through an exploration of cinema’s metaphysical side, examining what our movies have to say about life, death and beyond.

The Genellis focus on “transit” films: movies that explore a “transition or change, as to a spiritual existence at death.” (3) In their understanding, “the essence of the transit film is to show characters learning and developing, mastering their limitations in an essential way.” (80) These cinematic narratives thereby function as “vehicles for the subconscious infusion of perennial mystical/spiritual concepts about death.” (3)

The authors think that such films reveal important metaphysical truths and set out to show “how popular motion pictures have intuited transit through their visions of death and the afterlife, and how those visions play out their largely unconscious role in the evolution and guidance of human consciousness toward understanding the meaning and purpose of death.” (3)

The Genellis walk us through the metaphysical insights of movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life,… [Read more…] about What can movies tell us about the afterlife?