Reads of the Week
1) Seek by Andrew Johnson
"But no. You didn’t come and find Me. Someone talked you down, explained it all to you. Yes, he said, we call this God’s house, he said, but it’s not like God actually is a person who lives in here, has a room here, you understand? You nodded with a head that suddenly felt weightier, so you bowed it more often, looked around in wonder less often."
2) Why Wright is Wrong About Same-Sex Marriage (Part 1) by Heath Bradley
"To my mind at least, same-sex marriage is not so much a radical break with our Protestant American tradition as it is a logical extension of this trajectory and shift that can be found within it. Once you dispense, as most contemporary Christian Americans have, with the two elements that have dominated traditional understandings of marriage throughout history and across the globe, namely, patriarchy (that marriage must include a man and a woman because it is of the nature of men to rule and the nature to women to be ruled), and procreationism (that marriage is essentially about making babies and raising children) then it becomes increasingly hard to exclude two people of the same sex from this institution without special pleading or duplicity."
3a) There's a "Third Way"? by Benjamin Moberg
"The problem, obviously, is that when you apply the tiniest amount of pressure to these people, asking them what this Third Way looks like, how a church marriage policy could be crafted that way, how it would function, in real terms- the conversation gets convoluted. They meander into the abstract with zero evidence that all is right at the helm. Half the time you don’t know where it’s going. The word Nuance is said a lot. They give no answers, but they keep on saying it anyway: THIRD WAY. THIRD WAY. THIRD WAY."
3b) Follow Up: The Third Way (Station) by Benjamin Moberg
"The Way Station is the transitory place every non-affirming church either will or will not enter into. That’s the reality. And some churches might emerge out of it with a reformed view of same-sex relationships and some churches might emerge with a more thought out, but nonetheless unchanged position. Every church is allowed their process, but it matters that they enter into it."
4) On Preterism, the Second Coming, and Hell by Richard Beck
"What this means is that in the pages of the NT we have a mixed and matched eschatology. On the one hand you have early texts that seem to expect the Second Coming of Jesus in the lifetimes of the first century Christians, perhaps in conjunction with the destruction of Jerusalem. On the other hand you have later texts, written after AD 70, that push the Second Coming into the future in response to the delayed parousia."
5) Dance with Dirt and #WhyChurch by Mihee Kim-Kort
"I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun. I am smiling the entire time. I’m laughing, talking, and making jokes. We’re cheering each other, we’re waiting for each other, we’re talking about life, marriage, and jobs, and I’m thinking why isn’t church like this more? People covered in mud and grime and nobody cares, in fact, we are encouraging it, it’s like the ultimate equalizer, one trail, all stains. The remnant of the pack has dwindled to just four of us and we are a diaspora of sorts and embodying the struggle and journey, embodying the dissonance of dirt and sunlight, struggling together, betwixt and between, broken down but finding the energy and strength in our being together, embodying Emmanuel, embodying faith, embodying hope and possibility even as we toil up this ravine, as we fight tooth and nail to climb over felled trees, as we counter and resist everything that says No way you’re going to do it even from the ones you love and the ones who don’t mean it in a terrible way, but in a passingway, really it’s okay, because uphills and obstacles and challenges are good."
Honorable Mention
This Forgiven Woman by Kerry Connelly
How a Protestant Learned to Pray Like a Catholic (And Actually Started LIKING Prayer) by Elizabeth Esther
Cough. Breathe. Cancer. Death by Shawn Smucker
How to Ruin a Life by D.L. Mayfield
Why I Talk About the Devil So Much: The Devil, Enchantment, and Non-Violence by Richard Beck
Tweets of the Week
"'Pick a number between 1 and 10,' said the nihilistic magician. 'Then multiply it by zero. Everything is fated for nothingness.'" - @VikramParalkar
"a door is a wall that lacks courage and conviction" - @mallelis
"Every time you try to be funny about America advancing by losing, the terrorists win." - @evanchill
On Pop Theology Week in Review
Why I Stopped Laughing at the Bed Intruder Song by Rebekah Mays
"Many of us remember this immortal advice from Antoine Dodson, the unsuspecting star of one of the most famous YouTube videos ever. It all started in July 2010, when a man broke into the Dodson home and tried to rape Antoine’s sister Kelly."
Song of the Week
"Slow Motion" by PHOX
Peace,
Ben
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