Do you find yourself working for God’s kingdom, fighting an evil ruler, and so discouraged you sometimes pray for death? If so, maybe you can learn from the example of the prophet Elijah, who found himself in exactly that circumstance in 1Kings 19: Continue reading Spiritual Self-Care for the Resistance
Two Complaints about the NALT Project
I have two quibbles with the new NALT (Not All Like That) project, which is trying to make it clear that Christians are not all anti-gay: Continue reading Two Complaints about the NALT Project
A Thirteenth Question
My church is doing a sermon series on “God’s Questions” — twelve different questions that God asks humans throughout scripture. So far, it’s a really interesting series, and has really gotten me thinking. Today I’d like to think about a thirteenth question, one not included in the scheduled sermon series. Continue reading A Thirteenth Question
Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter #3: Invitation
The so-called Deathly Ill letter is partly a theological treatise, but primarily, it’s an invitation. The key phrase is halfway through:
We invite like-minded pastors and elders to a gathering on August 25-27 in Minneapolis to explore joining this movement and help shape its character.
I like the idea of an invitation. I like it, because it calls to mind the ministry of Jesus. But how is this invitation different from Jesus’ invitation? Continue reading Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter #3: Invitation
Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter #2: Why it won’t work
You seem to think that you can actually separate the church – that you can divide the good old-fashioned Bible-believing family-values anti-gay Christians from the homosexual heretics and those who support them . Just cleanly pull the two groups apart, like tearing along the perforation.
This makes me smile to myself.
Because it won’t work. Continue reading Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter #2: Why it won’t work
Fulfilling the law
Last Sunday’s sermon text was Matthew 5:17-20.
Here’s an exercise for you: read the whole rest of the Sermon on the Mount, and then fill in the blank with the word you think Jesus is most likely to have used here: “I have not come to abolish the law, but to _________ it.”
Affirm? Maintain? Strengthen? Proclaim? Restore? Obey?
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished….”
If you think about it, “fulfill” is a really strange word to use when talking about the law. You can talk about fulfilling a promise, or fulfilling a prophecy, or even fulfilling a requirement or an obligation. But what would it even mean to fulfill a law?
Continue reading Fulfilling the law
Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter (#1)
For the past few months I’ve been meaning to respond to a letter that’s been circulating in the Presbyterian Church (USA), nicknamed the “deathly ill” letter (from a phrase it its first paragraph). This will probably be the first of two or three posts.
For background, I’d suggest you read the letter itself, here: http://www.fellowship-pcusa.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Letter-to-the-PCUSA-February-2011-final3.pdf
I’ll address this post as though to the letter’s authors. Continue reading Response to the “Deathly Ill” Letter (#1)
Introduction
I’m Jonathan, and this is my little house on the Internet. Come on in and make yourself comfortable.
First blog posts are a sort of genre of their own — a dreadfully dull genre, I’m afraid — wherein I introduce myself and state all of my plans and goals for the blog, before I (a) utterly neglect the blog, or (b) take it in a completely different direction.
If you’re reading this, I assume you probably already know me in real life; I’m not sure why else you would be here. But in case you don’t, here’s what you’ll need to know to make sense of this: I’m a Christian (Presbyterian, to be specific, and PC(USA) to be even more specific), and I’m gay.
Oh, and I was on Jeopardy! once. But that was a long time ago. Continue reading Introduction