February 11th, 2010
[photo by David Schrott]
Yeah, I know, I had the last post in that Transgenderism series (Part I, Part II) due today. But, as of today, Pennsylvania has just received the most snow ever on record. It’s pretty nuts. So, today I’ve just been lazily hanging out with some friends from seminary and did not feel up to devoting the time and care I would have wanted to give to the post. So, here are some things I read today that might interest all of you. Stay warm!
February 9th, 2010
Yesterday, I started a little miniseries on Transgenderism in response to a question a friend sent me. They were wondering how Christians are supposed to look at this particular issue. Yesterday I laid out the questions and definitions involved here and asked for feedback. Today, I’m talking about a “Prolegomena of Transgenderism”. “Prolegomena” is just a big (but appropriate for this context) word that basically means talking about all the things that must be kept in mind before trying to answer questions. In Systematic Theology, it’s when we lay out the very foundation of our knowledge about the given topics and the presuppositions that will guide us through the rest of the endeavor. That’s what this post is. I want to explore a couple of perspectives that have driven a lot of the answers I’ve seen about this. Also, in light of the comments I received yesterday, I want to repeat that this was already written before I posted the prior post. I say this because I don’t want people to think I’m taking their ideas without giving them credit, nor do I want people to think I am specifically calling them out in what I’m writing. So let’s get started…
Keep reading →
February 8th, 2010
UPDATE: Part 2 of this series is up now.
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine shot me a facebook message asking me for a Christian perspective on, of all things, transgenderism. For many reasons that will be explained later, this will be a topic of increasing pertinence that the Church will have to give a theologically-informed account for at some point. We need to have answers for questions like: “Did God make them that way?”, “Are they just confused?”, “Should we support many people’s desire for surgical alterations?”,”What hope for ‘healing’ can we expect in this life?”,”Is it something that needs to be ‘healed’ in the first place?”, “Is it a sin?”, “What does a Christian with transgender issues look like?”, “Is that even possible?”, among others.
To be honest, I don’t feel like I have a rock solid answer to any of these questions. Every time I feel like I do, I talk to someone and they show me a new dimension I hadn’t seen before. So, I’m very open to ideas, which is why I’m writing this on the blog. I would love everyone’s feedback and opinion as to how one should answer these questions.
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February 6th, 2010
I try not to bash pastors that I know have good intentions. Those pastors that have demonstrated a desire to be biblically sound and pastorally sensitive, usually get the benefit of the doubt from me, even when I don’t think they are at the moment being biblically sound and pastorally sensitive. I also know that well-known pastors probably get far more useless and inane criticism from young twenty-somethings that think they know everything (myself included, far more often than I’d like to admit). But this went a bit too far. Tonight, John Piper put up the following tweet:
Really?
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February 5th, 2010
[This is a repost of the last in a series of articles I wrote about a year-and-a-half ago exploring my struggles with the idea of America as a "Christian Nation" (it is not; read more here)and how my Christian faith should influence my politics. Where I ended up is a very helpful place, I believe, for us Christians struggling with these things. In the first post, I show how America has many similarities with Ancient Rome that lend itself to helping us in this discussion. In the second, I discuss the motivations and limits of imposing a Christian worldview on a post-Christian society. In the third, I laid out the wrong motives that seem to drive most of Evangelicalism's attempts to take over the country, and their historical and philosophical roots. In the post below, I pick up right where the third one ends and give a biblical foundation for a possible framework we can use to discern our political action as Christians. Tomorrow I'll have a really interesting little post for all of you to chew on.]
My exploration of motives for Christian involvement in politics began to shift when I realized that the same Paul and Peter that preached a political worldview of simply obeying the laws were the same Paul and Peter that when told by authorities not to preach, they refused to obey. What’s going on? Apparently there’s some other principle at work that creates a depth, complexity, and dynamism within this issue: God and His Nature, Christ and His Glory. More on this in the next post.
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February 3rd, 2010
Simply Christian
Bishop N.T. Wright
Zondervan, 2006
Buy Now Here
Pre-Order New Ed. Here
__________
As I revealed in a recent tweet, I believe I’m walking into a new obsession with the author/scholar/pastor N.T. Wright. Surprising to many, I’m sure, with me being a seminarian and all, is the fact that I had never read any Wright before this book. Sure, I’ve known of his existence for years, had seen a few of his YouTube clips, and skimmed a few of his articles, but I had never read his books. My housemate during the two months or so before seminary began reading through Wright’s entire Christian Origins and the Question of God series (books 1, 2, 3) constituting over 2,100 pages of reading. He couldn’t stop reading, nor stop telling me about how amazing this man was. I nodded and agreed, sure that I would read something at some point. I had no idea what I was missing.
Keep reading →
February 2nd, 2010
The backbone of my morning and evening meditations and prayer has become the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It has taken me a while to figure out how to use it (with a lot of help from a friend), and I’m still clumsily trying to make my way along, but it is an amazing book. It gives just the right amount of both freedom and structure to give me both guidance and excitement. I’m really enjoying it. Secondly, I am a relatively new member of a church that belongs to the Reformed Church in America. Both of these things has led me to encounter ancient church documents, creeds, and traditions I was never exposed to as a Bible Belt Southern Baptist.
One of those newfound traditions that is really becoming a major part of my life is the Church Calendar. According to the calendar, we are currently in the season of Epiphany, where the church celebrates the travel of the Wise Men to see Jesus, therefore declaring him King and Lord among all the nations, and today is the Church Holy Day on which we celebrate Jesus’ presentation by His parents in the temple (forty days after Christmas) (Luke 2:22-40). As I went through the Daily Lectionary this morning, I found that focusing on this event and meditating on it bore some very real personal fruit that I wished to share.
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February 2nd, 2010
I have a fear for marriage. I’m not “handy” at all. I don’t know electrical systems, plumbing, or tools. What’s worse is, I really don’t know cars. I open the hood and it’s just a mass of metal and wires. I really have no idea when it comes to the workings of cars.
Which is why I’m so happy to have Jiffy Lube in my life. I love that company. There’s never really been a time I’ve gone to one that it wasn’t an actually enjoyable experience. Which is weird. Are you supposed to enjoy an oil change? I don’t know. Here’s some of what’s so great:
- They keep track of your manufacturer’s suggested maintenance time tables and your record of everything you’ve ever had done at Jiffy Lube.
- These records stay consistent among every Jiffy Lube in the country, so no matter where I go, they have a complete history of maintenance on my car and can give informed suggestions.
- If you could get the same work done elsewhere for cheaper, I’ve had several mechanics suggest where to go to get it done.
- Every employee there always seems to be in a genuinely good mood, and they are always eager to share any knowledge they may have about your vehicle or maintenance in general.
- They are really fast. Almost frustratingly so, because I can never seem to get as much reading done in the lobby as I was hoping.
- They will check your “Check Engine” light for free (some dealerships charge $75!)
- Their prices are really stinking good, and they seem to always have some sort of special going on.
And now onto the inevitable “bigger point” of all of this:
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January 31st, 2010
Personal goal for next week: write like nobody’s business.
I hate that it’s been almost two weeks since my last “real post”. I’m sorry. I need to be okay with using this blog actually as a blog and not a magazine where I’m the sole writer. I want to engage you all more. As has been my unattained desire for the past year, I want to do shorter posts, more audience engagement. I know my track record sucks, but I really do have other platforms more appropriate for my larger writings, and I’m so infinitely frustrated at myself for how I treat this blog, that perhaps, maybe this time, I just might be able to make blogging a bit more of a regular habit that you all will want to read and actually comment on. We’ll see.
Sorry for yet another filler post. Starting Monday, I’m hoping to blog your faces off. Until then…
January 23rd, 2010
I don’t know why, but I’ve been in an increasingly political mood recently. My blog-crastination (my perusal of blogs and news outlets to avoid doing other things with my time) has been almost exclusively centered around politics rather than my usual intake of theology, evangelicalism, and culture. So, expect some political writing for the next while on the blog.
I sat down last night to write an article on health care, politics, and economics last night to try and post it here today. But, as is typical for me, I’m not even done with it and it’s already six pages long. So, in my ever-failing attempt to put up shorter posts here, I’m going to see if that full article might work if I submitted it to some other sites. If not, I’ll whittle it down to a manageable size and post it here. I don’t know that it’s that profound, but there might be some substance there. So, for my apology for not having any new material today, I’ll just pot the song/EP that have been going on repeat on my iPod.
Ladies and gentleman, I give The Civil Wars performing “Poison & Wine”. Lyrically, one of the best relationship songs I’ve heard in years. Musically, (at the risk of sounding cliche) it’s haunting. Enjoy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfzRlcnq_c0]
(Live version here)
