The Ultimate Duckface and the Best Things You'll Read All Week

by Ben Howard

Reads of the Week

1) Everything I Know about Racism I Learned in the Church by Christena Cleveland

"As a millenial, I’ve lived most of my years in our so-called 'post-racial' American church.  Yet my earliest and most painful experiences of racism have all occurred in the church – at the hands of sincere Christians.  And unfortunately, my stories are consistent with the stories of many other people my age and younger."

2) Silver and Gold by Ben Bishop

"I’m tired. Weary of bearing witness to the violence we human beings rain down on one another. There are days when I feel wrung out like a washcloth, sick to death of trying to talk to scabby drunks holed up alone in their trashed apartments swilling mouthwash because it’s the cheapest way to dull the pain of life. What good am I doing? I’m tired of picking up one starfish at a time and throwing it back into the ocean."

3) 5 Reasons I Am Reformed by Nate Pyle

"For many, their understanding of Reformed theology stems from certain Calvinist voices. So when they read the above they may question if I am really Reformed. The short answer is, 'Yes.' Reformed theology is broad and diverse. What is typically represented by John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Albert Mohler is one stream of Calvinism, but is not representative of all Reformed theology."

4) The Legacy of Thomas Szasz: A Meditation on Mental Illness and Metaphor by Richard Beck

"Szasz argues that mental illness is a social fiction that is used to mask moral conflicts within society. Crudely, behaviors we don't like we label 'ill.' Behaviors we like we label 'healthy.' We then use the medical profession, backed up by the state, to regulate social behavior."

5) Millennials Need to Know Church MUST Be Boring and Irrelevant by Ed Cyzewski

"Listen, church isn’t a party.

If you’re not slightly bored and a little depressed, then something is most certainly wrong. You’re all so worried about everything in life being a grand old time that you never stopped to ask: 'Does everyone else like going to church?'

No. We most certainly don’t. Does that stop us? Not at all. That’s because it’s not about us."


Honorable Mention

I Am A Millennial or When the Gaithers Make Me Cry by Krista Dalton

The Color of God by Billy Coffey

Listening Dialogue by Marty Troyer

Tweets of the Week

"Currently testing my theory that a good haircut solves all my software upgrade problems at work. #science" - Emily Maynard (@emelina)

"When you look at Twitter's trending topics, it's a lot easier to understand why they have to write "Do Not Eat" on silica gel packets." - Ashley Feinberg (@ashfein)

"I admire your goal, but remember, if you blow it, now Hitler has a time machine." - Alex Baze (@bazecraze)

On Pop Theology Week in Review

On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 34 - On Women in Ministry w/ Jen Thweatt-Bates by Ben Howard

"This week on the show Ben sits down with Jen Thweatt-Bates, theologian and moderator of Gal328.org, an organization working for gender equality in Churches of Christ."

Warrior Christ: Why Fox News Should Love Reza Aslan's Jesus by Charity Erickson

"A refresher, for those of you who were living in a cave (Sicarii-style) last week: Fox News put the 'most embarrassing interview [they] have ever done' on the internet and, in addition to launching a boatload of delightful snark, it pushed Reza Aslan’s new book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus to the top of Amazon’s best-seller list."

A (Not So) Serious Man by Ben Howard

"I am not a serious human being. I can say that with some certainty because in the last two days I've tweeted extensively on my war against the sun and why sharks are jerks."

Reflections on Ecclesiastes at a Gazillion Feet (Approx.) by JaneAnn Kenney

"Flying has always helped me put my life back into perspective, which might be why I waited until now, on a Southwest flight headed west, to begin writing again."

Song of the Week

"First Breath After Coma" by Explosions in the Sky

Peace,
Ben

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. 

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. 

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Sacraments at the Ryman

by Ben Howard

I don't know how to start this.

I don't know how to convey to you what I want to say.

I want to share an experience with you. I want to tell you about what I felt, both physically and deep in my soul. I want to explain to you how I could feel totally alone and special while at the same time feeling like I was in total communion with everyone around me.

I want to let you feel something so profound that....so profound that someone else who experienced it with me said it, “made me feel human again.”

I've heard sacraments being described as a time when heaven and earth overlap. When we are able to witness the beauty and peace of heaven, but only for a moment and only through a veil, darkly. Typically, we refer to sacraments in the traditional sense. Eucharist, baptism, perhaps marriage. But there are other moments, moments when beauty eclipses our surroundings, when the world becomes more than the sum of its parts and we can feel the vague shapes of a hope and a coming dawn.

The experience I'm referring to was not religious in nature, at least not in the traditional sense. It was a concert by a moderately well known band called Explosions in the Sky, but this night they were something else. They were a vessel through which I believe we who were present were able to experience a taste of heaven. Just for a second. Just enough to leave a faint impression.

Keats once wrote that “Truth is beauty and beauty is truth.” The essence of the Christian journey has often been called a search for truth, so why not a search for beauty as well. All too often we focus on the idea, the theology, the hierarchy, the meaning, the argument, the purpose and miss the mere beauty of the experience, the transcendence of the aesthetic.

This isn't to say that we should tailor our religious expression to artificially create a feeling. We aren't chasing a spiritual high. But we do need to make room for beauty for beauty's sake; room for organic moments of art and brilliance that move us in ways that we could not have realized.

Below is a video for an Explosions in the Sky song titled “Your Hand in Mine”. There are lyrics, the band is entirely instrumental, but I want you to listen to the song as a prayer. Just let the song wash over you.

This may sound ridiculous to you, and that's okay. It kind of feels ridiculous while I'm writing it, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

Peace,

Ben

You can contact me on Twitter @BenHoward87, via email, or feel free to comment. :)