As you may know, the Misfit Faith podcast is doing a series on the Bible titled “Thoughts on the Good Book,” and my guests so far have been Brad Jersak and Jared Byas. In the spirit of this series I’d like to briefly set forth a few propositions for the consideration of anyone who is […]
Category: God
The Departing Glory from a Rotten Church
Since receiving a set of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s works for Christmas I have been doing some thinking. As you may know, Bonhoeffer was a German theologian executed by the Nazis toward the end of the Second World War, and one of his most important contributions has been his suggestion that what was needed in his own […]
On Being “Spiritual But Not Religious”
Anyone who came up in the ’80s will remember Yoda telling Luke Skywalker, “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.” But what if he was wrong? What if it’s both? I used to get a kick out of telling people that I’m “religious but not spiritual,” mostly because it confused them. But there was […]
Subverting Sin and Guilt
In this week’s episode of Misfit Faith I will tackle the subject of guilt. It’s a big one. In my own past as a missionary and pastor, guilt was operative on both a personal and theological level. Theologically, the idea doing most of the heavy lifting was that I was born in sin, and from […]
A Parable of Calamity and Cancer
There was once a woman in great distress, and to her surprise she experienced a vision while praying in which she was visited by the angel Gabriel. “Greetings, daughter of Eve,” the heavenly messenger said. “Word of your turmoil has reached my ears.” “Oh Gabriel!” the grieving woman exclaimed, “I am indeed burdened by both […]
The “What” Vs. the “How” of Belief
In my last post I sort of set the stage for a kind of Christian agnosticism, a way of doing faith without swallowing the jagged little pill of feeling like you have to be an asshole about it. Allow me to elaborate. Christianity is often rather gnostic as opposed to agnostic — conservative believers operate […]