Reads of the Week
1) Unstoppable Grace: Thoughts on the Gay Christian Network Conference by Rachel Held Evans
"I speak at dozens of Christian conferences in a given year, and I can say without hesitation that I’ve never attended a Christian conference so energized by the Spirit, so devoid of empty showmanship or preoccupation with image, so grounded in love and abounding in grace. As one attendee put it, 'This is an unapologetically Christian conference.'"
2) The Privilege of a Subway Swipe by Krista Dalton
"In plainer terms, I am well-read in race, feminism, disability, and gender issues. I follow people from each of these groups in order to learn more. And yet, the simple act of a subway swipe was beyond my privilege purview."
3) When This Is My Best Life Now by Preston Yancey
"We were disagreeing about something to do with God and when I saw the crack in your argument that had to do with knowledge or having read so-and-so or such-and-such and I pounced and tore you open and left you gutted. I say this twist of theological knife as if I have always believed it. As if this particular insight or position or belief was woven into me from my making. But it wasn’t. I read it last week."
4) The Heart of Wisdom: Chasing and Rest in Ecclesiastes by Richard Beck
"In this sense, then, Ecclesiastes is very much about idolatry, about our attempts to secure meaning and significance through human achievement or entertainments. The idolatrous thirst for yithron--for profit, advantage or gain--is revealed to be vanity. Because life is hebel. We are hebel. Anything we construct and worship is just going to wash away. Our idols will not last."
5) Why I'll Always Be A God Believer (About the Day I Was Going to Die) by Benjamin Corey
"I don’t know how to explain what happened in that moment, but I can tell you this: when people talk about being 'born again' I know when that happened to me."
Honorable Mention
The Body of Christ, the Balloons of Salvation: On Christian Balloon Twisting by Martyn Jones
Semon on Baptism, Belovedness, and How God is Like a Duped Teacher by Nadia Bolz-Weber
On a Bus Ride of Redemption by Tamara Lunardo
Tweets of the Week
"Man I hate it when Buddhists get all emptier-than-thou." - @JohnFugelsang
"coming up on the 20 yr reunion of my 10 bday and I'm going to spend it the same way: begging my dad to rent me a video game at blockbuster." - @_lxnx
"Nothing has ever tried to eat me. I am a bear." - @a_single_bear
On Pop Theology Week in Review
On Staying Home by Lyndsey Graves
"I am back from Georgia, stone-ground grits in tow, looking out my Boston window across the Charles River at Cambridge lights. I wonder how anyone could be lucky enough to live in two such beautiful places."
On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 46 - Vulnerability and Race w/ Grace Biskie by Ben Howard
"The podcast is back! For our return episode, Ben sits down with author and blogger Grace Biskie. Their conversation focuses especially on the deep vulnerability of Grace's writing and her thoughts on racial issues stemming both from her childhood in Detroit and her bi-racial identity."
The Christmas Story is Sexist and Faith Isn't Nice by Rebekah Mays
"The Sunday before Christmas, I attended a church service with my family. The pastor was discussing a familiar passage from Luke 1, commonly known as 'The Annunciation,' where the angel Gabriel came down to Nazareth and informed Mary that she was going to 'conceive and give birth to a son.'"
On Breathing by Lane Severson
"When I was a child I would sometimes think intently about the process of breathing. When I would do this, it would seem to remove the breathing auto-pilot, so that I had to consciously decide to inhale and to exhale and to inhale again."
Bad Music Theology: "Timber" by Pitbull (feat. Ke$ha) by Ben Howard
"Every so often I come across a pop song so catchy that I can't stop listening to it, but with lyrics so terrible that I hate myself every time I press play. Such is the case with 'Timber' by Pitbull and Ke$ha."
Song of the Week
"One Great City" by The Weakerthans
Ben
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