Friends, Monday is our usual day for airing our weekly podcast episode and the obligatory social media posts, but the Bible for Normal People team felt this day would be better spent remembering, honoring, and mourning our friend, Rachel Held Evans. Since her passing on Saturday, we, along with countless others, have felt like we’ve […]
Christian Faith & Life
Using Truth as a Weapon
Just a few weeks ago the Methodist Church, which represents over 12 Million Christians in America, met in St. Louis, for their General Conference. In a special session they voted on what was called The Traditional Plan, which kept church rules in place that disallowed same-sex marriages and gay clergy. In one presentation, Nancy Denardo, […]
Leaning Into a Life of Never-Arriving
In my journey of faith, if I’m honest, I’ve always wanted to get somewhere. As a teenager, I thought I had God figured out. Sure, I could continue to grow in my understanding of God but all the major puzzle pieces were in place and no tectonic shifts were going to take place. That felt […]
Maybe Certainty Makes Jesus Angry & Other Inspirational Thoughts
If I ever posted inspirational quotes on social media, which I don’t because it would ruin my sarcastic win streak I have going on Facebook, I know which one I would post first. It’s a paragraph from Jack Caputo’s book What Would Jesus Deconstruct? that has inspired me ever since I read it when it came […]
St. Nicholas Was an Absolute Beast.
In church this past Sunday, as he does each year, our rector handed out a card with an icon of St. Nicholas, similar to the one to the left. On the back of the card we read the following: Nicholas was born in the 3rd century in Asia Minor. He used his entire inheritance to help the poor, […]
What You Risk Theologically When You Say “God Is Love”
Ironic, isn’t it, that two cherished pieces of evangelical theology—God’s love and God’s unchangeableness—sit so uncomfortably together, at least once you dig down a bit.
A Blog Post in Which I Get Belligerent About Theological Belligerence
One cannot use Jesus and Paul as a justification for pathology–and excuse to see a gospel-survival conflict at every point of disagreement.
“Maybe You’re Just Not Listening” (My Mom . . . or God.)
In The Sin of Certainty, I tell a brief story about the time I was in middle school and made myself a sandwich. After I was done, I tied up the bag and tossed it onto the counter a few feet away. My mom, who had grown up in Europe during World War II (the Big One, […]
“How Can I Trust the Bible?” (You Might Be Asking)
“You’re sort of presenting a new paradigm for thinking about the Bible a new way a new path forward. And I sort of get it. And it explains some things. But here’s the problem that I have. How can I trust the Bible?” And I think that’s a great question to ask, as it actually […]
A Thought on Young People Dropping Out of Faith
They have lost interest in what amounts to a shallow, quasi-biblical expression of Christian faith, one that focuses far too much on the not yet. Ironically, in their critique they are putting their finger on something central to the Good News.
