anne rice's guide to quitting christianity and keeping jesus
Fri, Jul 30 2010 01:31 PM
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i've never read an anne rice book.
i've never seen an anne rice-adapted movie.
i've never been interested in vampires or books about vampires.
despite these things, though, i've been a distant and intrigued observer—over the last 10 years—as anne rice has come back to faith. growing up in the catholic church, at the age of 18, she left her faith in exchange for nearly 4 decades of ardent unbelief. after garnering legions of followers and authoring blockbuster books, she once again chose faith and for the past decade, she's been publishing books about the her faith and the life of christ.
but anne rice has never reached "christian celebrity" status like other celebrity purveyors of faith such as mel gibson, stephen baldwin or—god help us—chuck norris. despite her marked switch to literary works about the life of christ, she never seemed to fully embrace the prevailing values of white, evangelical culture, which is the key to unlocking full-on christian celebrity status.
well, the possibility of that status is official DOA.
anne rice is quitting christianity.
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of protest and privilege: tim wise talks tea party and racial divide
Tue, Apr 27 2010 12:59 PM
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whether it's a primary motivator or a smaller piece of the puzzle, most objective, analytical observers of the tea party can see that racial undertones are, well, more than just undertones. they're relatively major players within this "movement". nearly 90% of those involved are white and generally upper middle class. i'm not sure if you've heard or not, but the dude they hate and rally against is a black guy named barack obama. you know, "that one".
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25 in the 2000s: movies
Thu, Dec 17 2009 07:50 AM
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this is part of an ongoing series called 25 in the 2000s. if you want a bit of information about the series, you can find the introduction here.
often, the story of a culture, a people, a time period is shared through cinema. movies transcend moments and create timeless asides from normal life. so it was over the last 10 years. during that time, the theater has seen the best of times and the worst of times. yes, we've had to sit through quite a few michael bay movies, but at the same time, we've had the pleasure to enjoy some of the truly great cinematic works of all-time. with that said, here's my favorite movies of the aughts.
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friedrich nietzsche was exactly right about christianity
indeed, friedrich nietzsche was exactly right about christianity.
well, not about everything. but certainly, he got a few things right.
while i have had the, um, pleasure of dabbling into a very small amount of nietzsche's philosophies during my time at the seminary (mostly in relation to moral/faith development), i don't claim to be an exhaustive authority on all things nietzsche. what i can say, though, is that nietzsche, among others who have offered critiques, spoke very sharply about a certain notion of god and christianity. i'm not saying that he particularly liked some other notion of god, but it seems fairly clear that nietzsche primarily responded to a certain brand of god that didn't seem compatible with philosophical modes of engaging/viewing people and the world around him. (some have even argued that in spite of his famous god is dead declaration that nietzsche wasn't an atheist, though i digress.)
derek webb's stockholm syndrome: the spirit vs. the kick drum
Mon, Aug 3 2009 04:07 PM
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this is the third post in an ongoing blog series in which i go, track-by-track, through derek webb's new album, stockholm syndrome. here's a list of past posts:1. black eye2. cobra con-------------------------------------------throughout stockholm syndrome, webb weaves a series of poetic lyrics that dig beneath the surface of the obvious. it's not so much that the meaning is veiled as much as it doesn't
barna group research on homosexual faith perspectives
Wed, Jul 29 2009 02:24 PM
| church, emergent, quotes, christian subculture, theology, popular culture, websites, current events
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I read a fairly vast array of blogs. all the way from tony jones to even, yes, mark driscoll. i read the cry of social justice from the sojourners blog all the way to the calvinist smorgasbord of tim challies. on the more conservative wing of the blog spectrum, i semi-regularly read ed stetzer's (director of research for the evil empire lifeway) blog. stetzer—coming from a research point-of-view—is
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derek webb's stockholm syndrome: cobra con
Sun, Jul 26 2009 11:34 AM
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this is the second post in an ongoing blog series in which i go, track-by-track, through derek webb's new album, stockholm syndrome. here's a list of past posts:1. black eye-------------------------------------------after positing his theological presupposition for the entire album (that the church has become a willing and endeared participant in its captivity), webb begins to lay out a defense of
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new series: derek webb's stockholm syndrome track-by-track
Fri, Jul 24 2009 01:43 PM
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i suck at blog series.i mean, i really do. i've tried and while some work, most don't. they usually fizzle out or i get distracted by something else.BUT, i'm going to right this ship and start a new blog series because it's something i'm really passionate about and i think could be of interest to my legions thousands hundreds tens of blog readers.starting with this post, i'm going to be blogging through
you are what you eat: john calvin, tony campolo and logical conclusions
let's begin with a cliché, shall we?you are what you eat.it's cliché because it's true. certainly we become what we consume. or, maybe more to the point, we are externally what we are internally.it doesn't take long in reading my blog or having ongoing theological conversations with me to find that tony campolo has greatly shaped the way i engage theology, scripture and others. the consumption of
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quote of the day: the wisdom of parker palmer
i've read a couple of parker palmer's books (the courage to teach and to know as we are known) and they were both deeply transformative and spiritually enlightening. his latest book, a hidden wholeness: the journey toward an undivided life, looks to be another great one worth reading.i came across a quote from the book on zach lind's blog, finding rhythm. it's an incredible quote that is common from
quote of the day: death of emergent?
in the last couple days, the ripples from a blog post by nick fiedler (of the nick & josh podcast) has swept through the emergent blogosphere. his post, titled the great disappointment (a post about emergent) basically expressed his disappointment with returning to the states after spending a significant time traveling abroad and feeling like emergent had somewhat stagnated.naturally, it stirred
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brother hank on christian music
Tue, Apr 14 2009 11:03 PM
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"You aren’t making Christianity cool, you’re making rock music worse." -hank hill, king of the hill (speaking about christian rock music)
quote of the day
"You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind." -timothy leary (truth is, indeed, everywhere...)
quote of the day
Thu, Feb 5 2009 08:26 AM
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"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night."
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quote of the day
Tue, Jan 20 2009 05:01 PM
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unfortunately, i can't cite the source of this great quote because i saw it on twitter at some point and now i can't locate it. it was retweeted and it wasn't from a person i follow, hence the inability to find the source.one of my guiding life theologies is the implications of incarnational living, modeled after the life of christ. so, i thought this was a really great and beautiful way of talking
quote of the day
"he looks like a dwarf who's been dipped in a bucket of pubic hair" -boy george (referring to prince) (stay classy, boy george...)
quote of the day
the library is the napster of book selling. —doug pagitt(obviously meant as humorous...)
great quote
Sun, Nov 9 2008 04:05 PM
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i've heard this many times before, but a pastor at church today used this and it really jumped out to me.politics. religion. relationships. true in any context.when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. —bernard baruch
who knew '73 was so fancy?
the classiness continues...today, christen and i went and looked at a house and subsequently, i had to run over to the realtor's office. christen had already been there and had told me warned me about the time warp that was their office.my wife is a truth-teller indeed.it was like i stepped into sort of a dirty version of anchorman. i'm surprised everyone wasn't sitting around smoking and drinking
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church quote
Thu, Oct 9 2008 09:45 PM
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i'll be the first one to admit that i can be one of the biggest critics of the american church. quite frankly, we deserve it. moreover than just criticism, we need is a group of reformers, much like those around 400 years ago, who are bold and committed to truth enough to make some hard statements and challenge believers to make some much-needed changes.anyway, i won't get off on too much of a tangent,
find your own calcutta.
recently, tony campolo, on his weekly radio show across the pond (itunes link), sat down with shane claiborne, author of jesus for president and irresistible revolution, for a total of three full episodes. they were so good, i have considered posting them here on the blog. (rather than doing that, though, i would recommend subscribing to the podcast via itunes or via his rss feed.)they discuss quite
truth/Truth
one of my values in ministry and life, in general, is that we do ourselves, others and god a disservice when we seek truth only in "sacred" things. sometimes profound truth comes in packages that look more "profane" than "sacred."in talib kweli's give 'em hell, there's a powerful line for which i created a little artwork. i used it as a desktop wallpaper for a while and it created quite the conversations...
i think i'm starting to agree...
Tue, Aug 12 2008 03:12 PM
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“Christian music always seemed like the Special Olympics of music.” —unknown source
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