I didn’t intend to write about Romans 1 today. I intended to approach it at some point in the future with greater depth than I will probably accomplish here. Romans itself is extremely complex and mired in several hundreds of years of specific interpretations that I’m not sure Paul ever intended. Romans 1 is especially… Continue reading Romans 1 Is Not About Same-sex Relationships

I live near a church – I’ll keep it nameless to protect the innocent, but yeah, it’s one of those churches – that recently put up a banner that reads, “Genesis: The Gospel from the Beginning.” Oh boy, where do I start? Let’s get the usual snark out of my system first. What do I… Continue reading It Started with the Resurrection, Not Genesis

Sometimes I think Protestants have approached theology like the Bible is a big box of jigsaw puzzle pieces and if we just had enough time and patience, we’d be able to fit everything together. This is what some scholars would call a presumption of univocality. In other words, God is the ultimate author of the… Continue reading Puzzle Pieces and Bridges

One of the main reasons I started this blog is to defend our faith against both materialists and fundamentalists. Christianity is being attacked from without and within by these two camps. Today I felt a need to take up some common atheist arguments. I’ve argued against these before, but they keep coming up in various… Continue reading Here I Go Railing At Atheists Again

A question I’ve received a few times is about how I chose the name of this blog. The basic answer is that humility is one of my top personal values. Almost 20 years ago I sat in a Tokyo Joe’s eating lunch while waiting for my son to get out of a summer program and… Continue reading What is Humility?

Our church is in the middle of a pastoral call, and I spent a decent part of this year as a member of our transition team. In that role I got to survey members and aggregate their hopes and fears for the future. I also spoke with people individually about what they wanted to see… Continue reading The Pastor is Just Another Member

Between the ages of say 21 and 30 or so, if you had asked me what religion I was I probably would’ve said Buddhist. I didn’t belong to a sangha or sit with a sensei. I was more attracted to it philosophically. After leaving Christianity (turns out I never really left, what I left was… Continue reading A Zen Heart on a Christian Path

Because I draft my blogs about a month before I publish—an author’s convention aimed somewhat unsuccessfully at preventing embarrassment and regret from hastily penned screeds—I am writing this mere days after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I am very progressive. It won’t… Continue reading On A Recent Reminder of Bonhoeffer’s Costly Grace

2 Corinthians 12:9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. A good while ago a good friend who is also a pastor texted me… Continue reading Only One Who Has Failed Can Find a New Way to Win

I am haunted by the creation story. It’s not that I believe in the literal six-day creation or even an actual place called the garden of Eden. What amazes me about the story of the garden and our fall – our original occasion for sin – is that sin is the recognition that we are… Continue reading Healing Our Separation from God