Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

On Love and Bakeries

by Maxwell Grant in Christian Issues

What is it with love and bakeries right now?

According to the Washington Post, earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration sent a formal letter of warning to a Massachusetts bakery about a series of violations, one of which was with regard to the labeling of the bakery’s famous granola.

Apparently, if you look at the side label of the ingredients, in addition to oats and almonds and brown sugar and stuff, the folks at the bakery have also listed “love.”

According to the Post, “the ‘ingredient’ was a nod to the passion bakers put into their product and a wink to the fans of the snack.”

Well, that was all a little too cute to the FDA, which apparently has regulations about such things, and so they warned the bakery that “love” was considered “intervening material” on a list of ingredients, and needs to go.

From now on, if “love” is going to be an ingredient, it’s going to have to be a secret one.

So that has to qualify as the other big story about love and bakeries this season.

You’ve probably already heard of the biggest one.

This term, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case that is also, in its own way, about love—specifically, the right of a bakery to deny a customer service for religious reasons, namely, the baker’s faith-based objections to same-sex marriage.

The baker argues that his cakes are a form of expression, and that… [Read more…] about On Love and Bakeries

The Theology of Audrey Hepburn and Pippin the Deer

by Caroline Garnet McGraw in Christian Spirituality

Recently, I was at a medical appointment and the nurse asked me about my religious affiliation.

The question took me aback, in part because I wasn’t expecting it and in part because I didn’t know how to answer it.

How could I be honest and also fit my answer into a box on the intake form? The words stuck in my throat.

When We Don’t Fit Into Boxes

Longtime readers of my blog, A Wish Come Clear, know the broad strokes of my spiritual history.

You know that having a younger brother who thought differently gave me a firm belief in heaven as a place without barriers.

You know that I attended a cultic church in childhood, and that the experience gave me both beauty and baggage.

You know that I begged God’s forgiveness for every mistake, then discovered that God didn’t need to forgive me because God never judged me. (Unconditional love doesn’t judge!)

But what box to check for all of this?
Introducing Audrey Hepburn and Pippin
In the end, what clarified my spiritual beliefs was a series of photographs of Audrey Hepburn with a fawn named Pippin. These images left me speechless with delight.

Why Audrey?

Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress because she is winsome and funny and entirely herself. By all accounts an introvert, she demonstrates a quiet confidence, a strength grounded in sensitivity.

Plus, seeing her as Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffany’s gets me every time. Holly’s lifestyle choices – however chaotic and misguided –… [Read more…] about The Theology of Audrey Hepburn and Pippin the Deer

Mike Ditka, Eminem and Islamophobia

by Rich Rosendahl in Christian Issues

In the midst of the massively controversial NFL National Anthem kneeling debate, ex-NFL coach Mike Ditka ignorantly said, “But all of a sudden it’s become a big deal now, about oppression. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of.”

Just days later, Eminem freestyled on the BET Hip Hop Awards, praising Colin Kaepernick for the act of kneeling that Ditka had been critiquing.

So why is it that two white guys, who have spent tremendous amounts of time around black men, have such contrasting views on this issue? And what can this teach us, not only about racism in America, but also about Islamophobia?

There are, of course, many variables that could help explain why these men have such differing perspectives. They’re from different generations, they had different upbringings, and their encounters with black men are in two very different roles in two very different professions. But it’s the latter that I think is intriguing and worth exploring a little more deeply.

For example, much of Mike Ditka’s interactions with black men has been as an NFL coach, twenty years, in fact. In order to achieve success (win football games) in this position, it requires the obedience of the players. I learned this at an early age, having been raised by a high school football coach as well as playing for many other coaches along the way.

A football coach is a position that holds power, and, often, the players become more like a means to an end for them. That’s… [Read more…] about Mike Ditka, Eminem and Islamophobia

Turning Toward, Not Away

by Marguerite Sheehan in Christian Spirituality

One of the most powerful commandments that God issues us is to resist turning away from encounters with “the other” and instead to turn toward each other.

This past Sunday in our Time for All Ages I sat with three children. During this time in the worship service the kids and I talk with each other and with the adults in the pews, some of whom say that the Time for All Ages is the moment they remember, even more than the sermon.

On Sunday, we read a version of the ancient story of Moses and the burning bush. I love to read from the Archbishop Tutu’s interpretation of the Bible for young children because in the back of my mind I am always thinking how his experience in South Africa informs his re-telling of the Bible stories. Or maybe it is the opposite—how his reading of the Bible stories informed how faithful and courageous he and so many people were and still are in South Africa. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a challenging and transforming model for confronting, not turning away from, life no matter where we are or how old or young we are.

We were reading about how Moses was startled by the bush that was burning while the leaves continued to shine green. The contrast of burning and growing frightened Moses, yet his desire to see the bush overcame his aversion. God called to Moses and gave him an even scarier thing to do which was to directly approach the Pharaoh and demand that the Pharaoh let the Hebrew people go out from slavery.

Moses… [Read more…] about Turning Toward, Not Away

Let’s Talk About Priorities, White-Jesus Nation

by Sheri Faye Rosendahl in Christian Issues

Do you remember how Hitler gained power through his grand nationalistic ideals? Really, the Nazi party was simply trying to make Germany great again. So as they gained power through increasing intolerance, and even though they were kind of rigid and fascist, people turned a blind eye, they stayed silent as tensions within became darker than they could have ever imagined. They had only wanted their nation to be great again.

Sound familiar? I hope it does, because as someone who has studied and taught history, what we are seeing in our own self-proclaimed “Christian” nation today looks disturbingly similar. We aren’t at the point of total fascism with a side of genocide, but we are well on our way.

I’m sure most Germans also thought it would never get to the point of mass extermination of people groups in their “civilized” society.

This year—2017—has been overwhelming to the point that there is no longer a great shock value in any of the actions of our new administration. Nothing really surprises me in that realm at this point.

What does surprise me is the fact that we apparently have not learned anything from history as we watch the masses either defend the oppressive nature of our current regime or sit silent, trying to find some middle ground, calling themselves peacemakers at the expense of the suffering of others.

Yeah, I am a bit fiery right now, but I think we all need to be. I mean, let’s look at what has become the norm in our “great nation.”

It’s… [Read more…] about Let’s Talk About Priorities, White-Jesus Nation

American Idol

by Darryl Ward in Christian Issues

Earlier this month, Matt Sessums, from Oxford, Mississippi, was visiting his local Walmart when he saw something that made him look twice. At the entrance to the store he saw tables staffed by three children, who looked like they might be about ten, and two adults, who were doing a fundraiser for their church, the Oasis Church of All Nations, (or, to be more precise, its Transformations Life Center, a discipleship program for people living with addiction). “All proceeds go toward the program to reach the hurting and broken of society,” claimed a post on the church’s currently hidden Facebook page.

But this wasn’t a cake stall, like we might have in my parish, or a charity sausage sizzle, like we see most Saturdays outside some of the bigger stores in my town. This was a raffle. A raffle in which the prizes were two AR-15 military style semiautomatic rifles.

Now before I go any further, let me make it quite clear that I have no issue with private ownership of firearms for legitimate purposes, such as hunting. And—apologies to any vegetarians or vegans who may be reading—I am very partial to wild goat, rabbit, and venison. But I can see no legitimate reason for private citizens owning weapons that are specifically designed to kill the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time.

The timing could not have been much more insensitive. Not even a week had passed since 58 people had lost their lives and about another 500 were wounded in Las Vegas in the deadliest… [Read more…] about American Idol

Discovering “Biblical Truths”

by in Book Reviews

Over the years that this blog has been running, we’ve devoted a great deal of space to countering the dominant theological propositions of fundamentalist Christianity. But this inevitably leads to questions about alternatives: If a literal, “plain-text” reading of the Bible, especially as informed by modern evangelical theology, isn’t the “right” way to read the text, then what is?

How are we — Christians who reject limited, self-serving conceptions of God, who reject the absolute authority of an inerrant Bible, who reject the misogyny and homophobia of the modern Church, who, indeed, reject much of the “modern” part of church in general — how are we to think about our faith? How can we thoughtfully — and faithfully — wrestle with the theological issues at the heart of Christianity?

In response to such questions, I can now enthusiastically recommend Yale theologian Dale Martin’s new book, Biblical Truths: The Meaning of Scripture in the Twenty-first Century.

This 408 page volume (including a bibliography and subject, author, and scriptural indices), offers nothing less than a “nonfoundationalist, postmodern, Marxist, orthodox, ecumenical, and provisional theological interpretation of the New Testament” (32), in which Martin explains “why and how I continue to find traditional Christian doctrines and confessions ‘true,’ why I’m willing to confess the creeds, even though I am a critical scholar who knows much of the Bible is not ‘true’ when taken… [Read more…] about Discovering “Biblical Truths”

Welcome to our new online home

by in Miscellaneous

If you’re looking for the Unfundamentalist Christians blog, you’ve found it. We moved our blog here–archives and all–from its location on Patheos.com, where it was launched in the summer of 2013. Why the move? Mainly because we (along with, we know, so many of you) finally got fed up with all the ads, cookie downloads, and random emails from bottom-feeder advertisers automatically sent out to anyone who subscribes to a Patheos newsletter.

We understand Patheos’s desire to make money, of course. And we certainly appreciate that Patheos actually pays its bloggers, which so few sites do. For a blog such as ours, which does a lot of traffic, that monthly paycheck definitely helps. But ultimately we felt that we couldn’t in good conscience remain on a site so overwhelmed with ads.

So here we are, in a whole new place. And we’ve got a whole new name, too! We’ve changed our name from Unfundamentalist Christians to simply Unfundamentalist.

We did that because we want to extend the conversation we’re engaged in beyond the echo-chamber that has become the online world of “progressive” Christianity. We’re not in the slightest denying that we’re Christian; the document upon which this group was founded will not change. But we now want to emphasize that it’s time for the Christianity which we (frankly) have done so much to define and defend to move into that great big world which exists beyond those concerns exclusive to Christians and the Christian church.

Enough already… [Read more…] about Welcome to our new online home

On Conservative Christians’ Sudden Devotion to Imperial Cult

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

The amount of “good Christians” who have rattled their sabers in response to the NFL’s kneeling players during the National Anthem should not be surprising to anyone. Many of these same conservative (and of course largely white) Christians also voted for a man last November who epitomizes everything their Gospels speak against.

Indeed, in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Pat Robertson didn’t even try to veil his and his flock’s fetish for authoritarianism:
“Violence in the streets, ladies and gentlemen. Why is it happening? The fact that we have disrespect for authority; there is profound disrespect for our president, all across this nation they say terrible things about him. It’s in the news, it’s in other places. There is disrespect now for our national anthem, disrespect for our veterans, disrespect for the institutions of our government, disrespect for the court system. All the way up and down the line, disrespect.”
Robertson’s comments are ironic enough in light of how he spent much of the Obama administration. But seen through a longer lens of history, his and his ilk’s anger over citizens failing to display blind obeisance to a national leader, symbol, or ritual, and their demands for punishment, are ever more so.

Remember that these same white Christians have an immense persecution complex. They see any and every slight upon their faith as evidence of systematic oppression or proof positive that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping our way for… [Read more…] about On Conservative Christians’ Sudden Devotion to Imperial Cult

Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby

by in Book Reviews

If you have even a passing interest in jewelry making or holiday decor, then you’re probably familiar with Hobby Lobby. And if you have even a passing interest in biblical manuscripts or the modern antiquities market, then you’re probably familiar with the Green family, who just so happen to own Hobby Lobby.

The Greens possess both strong business acumen and steadfast evangelical Christian faith, and it is the meeting of those two seemingly disparate fields that is explored in the new book Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida Moss and Joel Baden. Their timely and eye-opening book is “an exploration of the unusual intersection of faith and business, biblical worldview and academic scholarship, religion and the public sphere–all of which are brought together in the Bible-focused initiatives of the Green family, Hobby Lobby, and MOTB [Museum of the Bible]” (12).

Moss and Baden examine the establishment of the vast antiquities collection of the Green family, the scholarly study (or lack thereof) of that collection, the Bible curriculum that the Greens are promoting for use in public schools, and the Museum of the Bible, a Green initiative dedicated to the book they seem intent to promote at virtually any cost.

In describing and explaining how the Greens are seeking to bring their “biblical” worldview to America, Moss and Baden raise difficult questions and cast light on countless questionable decisions surrounding the various… [Read more…] about Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby