Taco Bell is Self-Aware and the Best Things You'll Read All Week

by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust

Reads of the Week

1) More Than Three Minutes: Resistance and Grace in Ferguson by Richard Beck

"Because that will be a temptation. Again, if Darren Wilson is "innocent" many will feel safe to move on. And if Darren Wilson is found "guilty" many will feel safe to blame him and judge him as a sinner. The shooting of Michael Brown would have been caused by one individual's moral failure, a lapse in virtue and piety. A mistake. Or the product of a "bad person." Which means the guilt of Darren Wilson gets the system and our history off the hook. Guilt can be reduced to an individual, reduced to those three minutes. Daren Wilson can become the scapegoat for the system."

2) An Ancient Prayer Saved My Faith by David R. Henson

"My faith was saved, again, that first time I blessed bread and wine, and realized I had come home after wandering so long. And in countless celebrations since, I've had my faith saved in the blessing of bread and wine, when something more than I can ever imagine or pretend happens, when simple things become holy things, revealing that all simple things are holy things. Like the oily mark of Chrism on an infant's head, on a teenager's forehead, the weight of a stole and chasuble, the new light in the darkness of an Easter Vigil."

3) Birthday Celebrations and Awkward Feelings: Let the Little Children Lead by Abby Norman

"Can I tell you that it is hard to feel awkward sometimes at a neighbor's birthday party? Can I tell you that sometimes, in a store where I am the only white lady, I am extra embarrassed when my children throw a fit? Not just because my children are throwing a fit, but because I hear the things that people used to tell me, about white parents and fit throwing children. Can I tell you that my black friends deal with this every single day, but it isn't just a matter of feeling awkward? It is a matter of making sure their kids stay alive."

4) Does It Help To Know History? by Adam Gopnik

"The advantage of having a historical sense is not that it will lead you to some quarry of instructions, the way Superman can regularly return to the Fortress of Solitude to get instructions from his dad, but that it will teach you that no such crystal cave exists. What history generally "teaches" is how hard it is for anyone to control it, including the people who think they're making it."

5) We Underestimate the Foolish and the Kind Ones by Sarah Bessey

"I'm also suspicious of empire tactics being baptized and employed to "build the Kingdom of God." My soul recoils from the use of the very tactics of the empire - silencing, bullying, judging, other-ing, dehumanizing, mocking, name-calling, ganging up and piling on, violence - used against the oppressed and marginalized, now somehow being used for "good purpose." I see this tendency in my own soul and it grieves me."

Honorable Mention

Sermon on the Beatitudes by Nadia Bolz Weber

The Foolish Debate by Nate Pyle

What Does It Really Mean to Have Faith? by Zack Hunt

Tweets of the Week

"No one saw it coming. The students took over on the 1st day of school, led by the Kindergarteners who weren't yet drones of the system." - @VeryShortStory

"NBC: We exist! Since….I don’t know, we sort of lost count." - @revlucymeg

"TV filmed This Is Where I Leave You on an iPod Touch over summer break with all its friends. TV’s mom said it was 'VERY good, sweetie.'" - @tvoti
Song of the Week

"The Mariner's Revenge Song" by The Decemberists

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.  

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by Sebastian Faust and Ben Howard

Reads of the Week

1) I Know a Boy by Shannan Martin

"There are so many sides to every story and we may never know for sure what happened in those moments where time stood still and a new line of mangled history was inked. It's too hard to wade through, the water too murky, and we don't want to be wrong. So we turn and walk away, back to our tidy corners and our predominantly white churches where things make sense and everyone believes the same version of the story."

2) He Was a Miracle by Laura Turner

"He's there, walking, so alive, so completely, painfully alive. He's right there, a living, breathing human person! His diaphragm is contracting! His lungs are taking in oxygen and nitrogen! Air moved from his trachea to his bronchi, then bronchioles, then alveoli! He was a walking ninth-grade science class, right there in front of us, a fucking miracle on two feet!
It was over in about fifteen seconds. The cops came, of course. They are white. He, as you know, was black."

3) The Cross and the Molotov Cocktail by Christena Cleveland

"Can you see the suffering Christ in the oppressed, even the ones who aren't responding perfectly to society's oppression? Christ doesn't just suffer for the innocent, the ones who don't have the energy to fight back, or the ones who perfectly respond to injustice. He suffers for the ones who suffer now and sin in their suffering."

4) The Eccentric Economy of Love by Richard Beck

"The church is denying its own need, weakness and vulnerability. Thus, the church comes to see itself as a hero, riding in on a white horse to save others. Since we don't need anything from the people we are helping, there is no reciprocity, no economy, no relationship, no giving and sharing back and forth.
We show up, do our good deeds and then pack up and leave. Why? Because we don't need anything from those people. They need us. We don't need them.
But we do need them. And we need each other."

5) For Now, Young Black Males Matter...Until the Cameras Go Off by Romal Tune

"If they go inside now, they know that they will cease to matter. America will go right back to not caring about what happens to them. In their minds, they have to stay outside, they will do whatever it takes to keep the cameras rolling. It's almost as if they are saying please don't go away, please stay, because the moment you leave or turn the channel, no one will care anymore."

Honorable Mention

When Them Becomes Us: On Emmanuel by Abby Norman

Sermon on Grace, Dogs, and Sass-Mouthed Women by Nadia Bolz Weber

What to Wear When You're Lost by Shannan Martin

Tweets of the Week (via Lane Severson)

"According to Led Zeppelin, people in wheelchairs aren't getting into heaven." - @daemonic3

"I held a grape up to a cup of wine before eating it, so it could see how fully my species has subjugated its kind" - @lanyardigan

"i put my pants on like everyone else - surrounded by cops in the middle of a wendy's screaming furiously about my rights" - @rahtzee

On Pop Theology Week in Review 

Ferguson and the Suffering God by Kyle Baughman

"Theology is, for me, a Trojan Horse. I allowed it through the gates and trusted much too quickly, when suddenly its peaceful presence turned savage; the doors fell open and it revealed its nature."


Song of the Week

For Michael Brown, Ferguson, and all the rest... "Final Straw" by R.E.M.

If hatred makes a play on me tomorrow

And forgiveness takes a backseat to revenge

There's a hurt down deep that has not been corrected

There's a voice in me that says you will not win.

Now I don't believe, and I never did,

That two wrongs make a right

But if the world be filled with the likes of you

Then I'm putting up a fight.

So I raise my voice up higher

And I look you in the eye,

And I offer love with one condition:

With conviction, tell me why.

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.  

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by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust

Reads of the Week

1) The Evil at Our Borders: Migrants, Refugees, and the Spiritual Crisis of Immigration by David R. Henson

"For conservatives, it is an immigration crisis, demonstrating the failures of the U.S. immigration policy and the need for militarized borders. For liberals, it is a humanitarian crisis, demonstrating the failures of U.S. economic policy, the immediate need for aid, and the necessity of immigration reform. For me, while I agree with progressives here, it is also a profoundly spiritual crisis. It is a crisis of faith, and right now, we are not the bearers of liberty, hope, democracy, or good news. Rather, we are the bearers of evil."

2) Re-thinking Communion by Christena Cleveland

"It seems that the way we do communion in many churches is too easy, too convenient, too painless, too safe, too inorganic, too separate from actual reconciliation work, and too individualistic. I’m starting to think that the way we do communion is not scandalous enough to represent the cross."

3) Hebel, Grace and the Art of Andy Goldsworthy: Part 2, Living as a Sacrament by Richard Beck

"Here's what I mean. Today each of us will wander out into the world. And around us we'll find all sorts people and all sorts of situations. It's a fractal, messy, and chaotic world out there. And it's not all bad. There are beautiful things, like flowers, out there. But there is also sadness and brokenness, conflict and deadness. And what we'll try to do today (or what we should be doing today) is very similar to what Goldsworthy does. We will try, given what we find out there, to bring grace and beauty into the world."

4) Authentic Modesty: Compassion Over Shame by Saskia Wishart

"Imagine if we, as women who love, started talking about how we deal with harassment from men on the street instead of slut-shaming women for drawing the harassment. My hope is that we learn to look with compassion, not lust. That we can place value, rather than casting shame. My hope is that we understand that body parts are only the start of the story, and there is so much more to be known about an individual."

5) "Why I Use Birth Control": 11 Women Speak Up by Rachel Held Evans

"Opinions about the ruling aside, I’ve been stunned by some of the misinformation circulating around social media about contraception, the most unhelpful of which characterizes women who use contraception as 'entitled,' 'sluts,' 'moochers,' and 'whores.'  I’ve shared my own thoughts on contraception in a post entitled 'Privilege and the Pill,' but today I wanted to yield the floor to ten women whose stories challenge these unfair caricatures. I am incredibly grateful for their bravery and honesty in stepping forward to tell the truth of their experiences. Please, listen."

Honorable Mention

The Saddest - and Classiest - Soccer Fan by Jason Morehead

How Secrets Made Me Sick by J.

Gettin' on the Mat by Diana Trautwein

Tweets of the Week

"An exclamation point is like a tiny little crutch for your joke." - @bazecraze

"God was dead. But the show had to go on. His doppelgänger Göd stepped in, executed the Apocalypse to rapturous applause." - @VikramParalkar

"Crossfitters are the Boy Scouts of the adult world." - @chettarcheese

On Pop Theology Week in Review

Because I Know You: Friendship and Tom Cruise by Charity Erickson

"The other day, I went to see Edge of Tomorrow, the newest addition to Tom Cruise’s rather extensive sci-fi repertoire."

Elephants in the Room: Israel, Palestine, and the Nature of Oppression by David Creech

"My natural disposition is to side with those who are oppressed. I also prefer to hear people tell their own story rather than insert my opinions from the outside. Enter the Israel-Palestine conflict."

Song of the Week

"Lanterns" by Birds of Tokyo

Peace,
Ben

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.  

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by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust

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

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.  

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by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust

Reads of the Week

1) On Faithfulness (A Brain Dump) by Rachel Held Evans

"And so I stood, vulnerable once again, in that most infuriating and miraculous contradiction of the Christian life: that the Church wounds and the Church heals. I’m still not sure what to do with that."

2) Jesus On the Under-Arc by Shannan Martin

"I'm not good at making sense of the world I'm in. I've tried. And in this harder, ordinary state of living, hope is found when we cobble together a few broken pieces and shape them into something whole and new. We re-frame our expectations for the zillionth time and wonder all over again why we ever thought black and white were real. Almost all we ever see is gray."

3) In Prison With Ann Voskamp by Richard Beck

"Steve and I start talking about what eucharisteo looks like in a maximum security prison. About where an inmate might find "one thousand gifts" in his day to day life. And we talk about how that practice of thankfulness, gratitude and grace has been spiritually transformative for Steve. And while Steve and I were talking about how Ann Voskamp is changing his life I began to grow uneasy in my heart. For I had misjudged Ann Voskamp."

4) Confessions of a Religious Asshole by Micah Murray

"They say the Bible is like a mirror, and when I catch a glimpse of myself in its scattered fragments I realize I’m just the same as the people I’m so quick to denouce. I speak out against shame, but I shame those who disagree with me. I speak out against borders and walls, but I’m quick to turn “us” against “them” when “them” make me angry. I speak of love, but only when it’s easy."

5) If We Are The Body, I Might Be The Thumb by Sarah Joslyn

"I like grown-ups. I like the ones with gritty pasts and messy, grace-laden presents and dream-filled, wild futures. I like the ones who are broken and disheveled, like me. Who aren’t afraid of real talk and swear words."

Honorable Mention

Holy Relics: A Plan of Salvation Bead Bracelet by Martyn Jones

For Your Own Good by Gretchen White

In Which a Homeschooler Tries to Write Contemporary YA by Hannah Ettinger

Tweets of the Week

"Happy B-day Kierkegaard. You lived a bitter life and died alone. Now anyone who quotes you loses all their friends too." - @_lxnx

"George RR Martin's hat versus Pharrel's." - @TheAlanNoble

"How am I supposed to explain Michael Sam to my kids? I don't want them confused by his two first names lifestyle." - @EmmaWilson511

On Pop Theology Week in Review

No Honest Song Besides These Blues by Hannah Paasch

"1961. New York City. The scene opens on an ill-lit, smoky bar, crowded with mesmerized listeners huddled around cafe tables and bottles of beer."

The Problem of Evil: Devils, Aliens, and Doctor Who by Laura Brekke

"Cultures across human history have struggled with the problem of evil."

Song of the Week

"Sleep" by Little India

Peace,
Ben

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. 
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by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust

Reads of the Week

1) The Day I Knew I, Too, Could Murder by Bronwyn Lea

"It was the day I knew I could murder. The day I knew I, even I, was capable of the most terrible depravity. After years of theological lip service to the fact, it was the day I knew I was a sinner. Horrified and humbled, I sat in a cold sweat on those sun-baked steps and wondered how it was that I could call myself a Christian while longing for the death of the three men who had snaked off into the night and left my most beloved in shreds."

2) The Charism of the Charismatics: Part 6, The Heart Has a Way of Knowing by Richard Beck

"Emotions make our world. And if emotions make our world then attending to the emotions is a critical, perhaps even the central, task of Christian discipleship. Discipleship is more a matter of training our emotions than of changing our minds."

3) The Ministry of Watching Sparrows Fall to the Ground by D.L. Mayfield

"Is this witnessing? Is this being a witness? I don’t get to use a whit of my degree in Theology. Instead, I am burrowing deeper and deeper into the forgotten parts of our world and I am trying to keep my spirit and my eyes open. Really, when it comes down to it, I am not the famous missionary or preacher or theologian I always yearned to be. Instead, my ministry is about watching the birds. His eye is on the sparrow. I know this because he has asked me to be the witness to it, to be his eyes and ears and hands on the earth. And I am here to tell you, they are falling to the ground in droves."

4) The Best Faith Film You'll See All Year by Rachel Held Evans

"While the debates rage on about whether Noah is biblical enough, Heaven is For Real true enough, and God is Not Dead profitable enough, Philomena delivers a quiet, understated, and powerful portrayal of the actual human experience,  where clear-cut lines between good and evil, heroes and villains, right and wrong might be good 'story-wise' but don’t reflect the reality most people of faith actually live in."

5) Why Sarah Palin is Right About Baptism by Waterboarding - #AmericanBaptism by David Henson

"But, in truth, Palin is right. Waterboarding — along with other torture and human rights abuses like drone warfare and indefinite detention — was how the United States baptized the world into its new creation — the war on terror. It was simply an American baptism instead of a Christian one. We baptized 'combatants' with waterboarding. They became new creations that raised to life through outrage and injustice new enemies and violence."

Honorable Mention

Classical Music Makes Me Sick and Joyful by Mary DeMuth

Crossed Paths by Jamie Wright

If I've Survived to Achieve It All by Kenny Pierce

Tweets of the Week

"sorcerers are usually not named Dan" - @jon_bois

"I have mixed feelings about the sun. I like that it makes my belly warm, but I do not like that it can make my belly too warm. I am a bear." - @A_single_bear

"Son, we don't play Hungry Hungry Hippos for "fun." We play it to learn how friends turn on each other in moments of desperation and scarcity" - @longwall26

Song of the Week

"Algiers" by The Afghan Wigs

Peace,
Ben

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.  

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