The UmBlog

Until last autumn, I had not read any of Dr. Peter Enns ' books although I am a regular reader of his blog at Patheos, " rethinking biblical christianity ..." I did write a brief review in November and after writing the long form book response to Flood's book Disarming Scripture , I thought it would benefit me to reflect more on this book as well. It is an excellent book and written in a more accessible style than Flood's. There are only seven chapters with numerous sub-headings in each chapter. When the Old Testament is read literally and not as literature, as is typical in my background and for most American evangelicals, God does not come across as good. "Other parts of the Bible are shocking to read, even barbaric, and hard to defend as the Word of God in civil adult conversation. God either orders a lot of killing or does it himself - and even comes across as a bit touchy...If we read this anywhere else, we would call it genocide." p. 5-6 May...

Guilty. Sometimes the pressure builds and I have this incredibly optimistic belief that it won't stink. And 85% of the time it doesn't. But that 15% will peel paint off the walls. The best part about farting in public is people will suffer through it in silence, since the culprit, me, is not identifiable, unless my shoulders are shaking as I try to hold in my giggles (yes, I failed to advance out of that Freudian stage of my life). The good thing about farts is eventually they dissipate. The distraction they cause is short lived. Babies, however, have no inhibitions when it comes to movements of the bowel. They do not care what is coming out, nor how loud it is, nor the likelihood of its pending stinkiness. They do not care how much of a mess they make.  They do not care how big of a smile they make when they do blow the tanks. Their product's essence will linger until their parents remove them from the room, change their diaper, maybe their onesies, and wipe down their b...

For 2000 years, as Christians have spread around the world they have spread the Good News. The first great missionary, St. Paul, writes to the church in Corinth in the mid-50's AD that the good news boils down to three things, 1 Cor. 15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried , and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures ... One of the earliest New Testament writings preserved to this day, written before the letter to Corinth, is Paul's letter to the church in Thessalonica. He commends this church for you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead , Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath . 1 Thess. 1. This creedal formula shows up several times in the New Testament, outside of the gospels, and not just in Paul's writings. Peter's sermons in th...

John 6:29 Jesus replied, “This is the deed God requires—to believe in the one whom he sent...40 For this is the will of my Father—for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  I do look to Jesus. I am not sure I have ever seen him clearly. I can agree with the creed that he is fully God and fully man, that he died and that he rose again. But I do doubt. Sometimes I don't believe. In most traditions and tribes of Christianity this does not make me ineligible for a heavenly afterlife. It's seen as normal covered by the grace of God. I definitely struggle with the view of God portrayed in the Bible as well. Breaking free from the mindset that every part holds equal authority to every other part, a flat reading, has definitely helped me. The disconnect between some portrayals of God in the OT and Jesus in the NT are not as paralyzing for me when I prioritize Jesus' revelation of God over any ...

I have more experience with bullying than I wish I had. I grew up with a bully. I was bullied at school. I found safety in joining the bullies as well. I suffered from and contributed to the sickness of the world. In elementary school I defend a kid getting bullied for his afro. In high school I'm making jokes using racist epithets. In junior high school a bully sits next to me on the bus ride home and punches me hard in the leg over and over again. When I get home I get into full contact fights with my younger brother. I sing songs of love to Jesus, then post on Facebook the most obnoxious verse about God I read that morning. I need to explain that last one a little more. Those commands to kill every man, woman and child? I'd make that my status for the day, but not ironically. A verse that portrayed God in an ugly way, I posted. Why? I wanted my friends to see how mighty my God was. How he could do whatever he wants. Including being a bully. In the 1990's I sta...

It takes about 40 weeks to prepare a human in the womb for the world. Forty weeks or 280 days takes about 9 full moons. Noah sat on his boat for a little over nine moons. It rained on his boat for forty days. Moses lived in exile for 40 years. The children of Israel were liberated by Moses after 400 years of Egyptian slavery. Moses went up on the mountain to talk with God for 40 days. The Israelite spies visited the Promised Land for 40 days. Moses prayed for Israel for 40 days. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. The prophet Elijah fasted for 40 days. David began the liberation of Israel after 40 years of Philistine oppression. Jonah gave Nineveh 40 days to repent. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days before he began his ministry. Jesus appeared after his resurrection for 40 days. The Lenten season lasts for 40 days. Forty is about new birth, a difficult period of growth in preparation for transition. I remember first asking Jesus in...

Derek Flood has written an excellent book explaining the issues I covered in my blog series this past autumn. My series is titled " Not everything Biblical is Christian ." His book is titled  Disarming Scripture. Cherry-picking liberals, violence-loving conservatives, and why we all need to learn to read the Bible like Jesus did . It is certainly a mouthful, but his examples are better than mine and deserve a thorough treatment here. Flood's book is ten chapters long and I intend to speak about each chapter in separate blog posts. I heartily recommend this book for the thinking Christian. Chapter 10 is titled, "Re-thinking biblical authority." Flood introduces this chapter with a serious question. "If there are things endorsed in the Bible like genocide and slavery which we can and must clearly recognize as wrong, then in what sense can we say the Bible is inspired, let along infallible or inerrant?" p. 229 Even before we can ascertain what the ...