Actor and musician Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, recently released a video in which he undergoes the force-feeding procedure that hunger-striking prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are being subjected to. You can read a first-hand account here, or watch the video yourself:… [Read more…] about Mos Def gets force-fed for Guantanamo
Al Mohler Does It Again
If Jesus taught that what comes out of a man defiles him, surely the blatant inaccuracies and lies peddled by many of his most ardent followers must concern him at least a little, especially when they are done in connection with the Bible.
But such was the case yet again recently when Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary, was asked at the SBC’s recent convention to give his “succinct” and “Biblical” view of homosexuality. As per usual when Mohler opens his mouth, what he claims to be the case is almost precisely opposite what any mainstream scholar on the topic would tell you.… [Read more…] about Al Mohler Does It Again
“Is hell real?” What are we, six-year-olds?
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?
The brain-washing, fear-inducing world of the fundamentalism I knew
Sometimes people ask me why I became an Unfundamentalist. Well, the main reason is that I know what real fundamentalism is like. That’s because I was raised in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church, home, and school.
In that environment, there was always an intense focus on the filthy rags verse. (All of us have become like one who is unclean / and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags / we all shrivel up like a leaf / and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6.) We were indoctrinated to believe that we were completely worthless in the eyes of God, and this is how we came to view everyone else, too–which leads to the hubris and judgmentalism so common to fundamentalism.
We were taught that we were dirt: undeserving, untrustworthy, deserving only of punishment. IFB humility is expressed as: “I don’t deserve God’s love; I don’t deserve God’s blessing; I’m so lucky that He doesn’t just strike me dead right here this very instant, because I am so evil and full of vile sin.”
We were taught that Satan will take every opportunity to creep in and trick us away from “the narrow path.” Questions, doubt, and sin were of the Devil, evidence of weak faith, or of no faith at all. If you struggled with sin of any kind, then maybe you weren’t really a Christian after all. Maybe you needed to pray the sinner’s prayer again, and really ask Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you–and this time really mean it.… [Read more…] about The brain-washing, fear-inducing world of the fundamentalism I knew
Unfundamentalist Christians: That’s we in the corner
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
The Jesus Clown Car
(This guest post by David Paul Kirkpatrick, the former President of Paramount Pictures and the former Production President of both Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures.)
Someone said that civilization began to end when the media circus entered everyone’s living room in the form of 24/7 cable news. That non-stop phenomenon required more information than ever before: more news, more stories, more sirens, alarms, bells and horns. And today we not only watch that flashy extravaganza, we’re in it: we’re daily Tweeting, texting, and blogging our commentaries on the very stories we help to create.
Years ago, conservative President Ronald Reagan and liberal Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill met every week for a whiskey and a talk. Though possessing very different points of view, they met in private as men who needed to get things done. And hey, whaddaya know: they got things done.
Can you imagine that happening in our three-ring circus culture of today, with all the video screens we have everywhere around us—in our homes, in our cars, at the gas pump, on the subway, above our urinals, in the palms of our hands—constantly bombarding us with nothing so much as strife, angst, and all drama all the time?
Two men cooperating together for the common good?
Pfft. How is that going to entertain us while we’re pumping gas?
Gay at the circus
In Hollywood, it was easy to be gay; lots of people there were, and nobody… [Read more…] about The Jesus Clown Car
A spontaneous prayer about the DOMA ruling
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
I Do Not Permit A Woman
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In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul says “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” (NIV2011)
What’s up with that? Is Paul really issuing a definitive command regarding women’s roles that’s binding upon all Christians today? Is this a clear directive that severely limits women’s ministry in the Church? That’s certainly how most complementarians understand this verse. But is that where the discussion ends? Paul said it, I believe it, that settles it?
But wait a second. Do all Christian women avoid gold and pearls? (1 Tim. 2:9) Do they cover their heads when praying? (1 Cor. 11) Should we always greet each other with a holy kiss? (Rom. 16:16) If we’re visiting the island of Crete should we assume that the people we encounter are all “liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”? (Tit. 1:12) Should we always carry a cloak, scrolls and parchments with us on our journeys? (2 Tim. 4:13)
In short, how do we understand the words of Paul? What ones do we choose to apply to our modern Christian practice and what ones do we disregard — and more importantly, why?
1 Timothy 2:8-15 is a notoriously difficult passage. Part of the problem is that we’re only hearing one side of the conversation — we’re listening in on one end of a two thousand year old discussion that wasn’t directly intended for us. We aren’t familiar with the culture and context, we don’t truly know what it was like to be a Christian in first century Ephesus and… [Read more…] about I Do Not Permit A Woman
An open letter to Exodus International's super-remorseful Alan Chambers
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