“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?” These words by Janis Joplin in her 1970 song are a terrific critique of materialism, culture and the white protestant focus on privilege and prosperity. It’s ironic, it’s tongue-in-cheek and it does a better job at calling out hypocrisy than many sermons. So when Mercedes-Benz licensed the… Continue reading Literalism is Disrespect
Category: The Bible
Christmas is More Than a Story
I love Christmas and the Christmas story. Singing angels, gifting Magi, the image of God as humbled as possible as a helpless baby in a manger. But it’s not important to me whether these are literal historical facts about Jesus. If that kind of thing matters to you, stop reading here because my intention is… Continue reading Christmas is More Than a Story
What Is the Revised Common Lectionary?
I read the Bible daily on my phone. I don’t say that to brag about my piety, I say that to give you an opportunity to stand back and marvel at the wonders of our modern world. We can carry the Bible around inside of a super computer in our hip pockets. The Bible has… Continue reading What Is the Revised Common Lectionary?
More Than Words
I received a question from a reader on the post Your Church is Not Biblical: “how do you follow the Christian faith when you are so critical of the Bible?” First, I’m not (that) critical of the Bible, at least not in the way I think this question intends. Anyone who is serious about Christianity… Continue reading More Than Words
Why I Don’t Often Read the New International Version (NIV)
The NIV isn’t the worst translation you could read. It has accessible, modern language. It tries to eliminate at least some gendered language in places where gendered language has changed with the culture, makes no sense or becomes a stumbling block while reading. Myself, I almost always use the NRSV day-to-day, so I have my… Continue reading Why I Don’t Often Read the New International Version (NIV)
Your Church is not Biblical
Recently a friend pointed out to me that a couple of disgruntled former members of our church had written Google reviews about our church saying we weren’t “Biblical.” Setting aside the facts that we read and teach on the Bible every single week and giving your former faith community an uncharitable and inaccurate review seems… Continue reading Your Church is not Biblical
How Many Donkeys?
In a previous post, Apples Are Not Bananas, Theology Is Not History, I discussed what I think is a major problem in either criticizing or defending the Bible. Namely, we shouldn’t be taking the Bible as literal, inerrant history. It was never intended to be read as such. Somehow, inerrantists have decided that there is… Continue reading How Many Donkeys?
Apples Are Not Bananas, Theology Is Not History
How do ex-Christians lose their faith? There are too many paths to count, but a primary way is to become disillusioned when they find out that the Bible isn’t what they thought it was. I wanted to outline some common arguments I hear from Christians-turned-atheists and why I think typical Christian apologetics fails to answer… Continue reading Apples Are Not Bananas, Theology Is Not History
Reading Bart Ehrman Will Not Turn You into An Atheist
I remember one time I was reading Bart Ehrman’s book, Did Jesus Exist? and I left it on my coffee table when a friend came over. The friend was instantly ruffled by the book’s title, and no doubt, the name of the author. “Of course Jesus existed, what a waste of time!” I can understand… Continue reading Reading Bart Ehrman Will Not Turn You into An Atheist
My Favorite Metaphors for Scripture
We’ve been handed some strict ideas about the Bible that can sometimes stifle our approach to reading and interpretation. Specifically, many Christians approach scripture as a finished, infallible work that we simply take facts from. I prefer to think of scripture as part of a tradition that we constantly engage with while we listen for… Continue reading My Favorite Metaphors for Scripture