The Little Friar

Bonhoeffer treasured Cervantes'  Don Quixote .  He believed the beleaguered idealist was an apt metaphor for the Confessing Church.  He reasoned that the church needed "new" weapons, a "new" theology, "new" strategies to confront the rise of National Socialism.  The established state church reflected an old falsehood, a church which had burned its witness at the stake as the Nazis had burned books in the Bebel  Platz in Berlin.  Now, new "weapons of the Spirit" were necessary. Bonhoeffer found all that newness with Christ the Center , focused in Discipleship , expressed in Ethics  and attentive particularly in Spiritual Care  through Life Together .  He was, in a very new way, the Confessing Church's "renaissance man".  To quote Bonhoeffer:  "Here is the immortal figure of Don Quixote ... who takes a barber's dish for a helmet and a miserable hack for a charger"; [in Germany we have] "an old world venturing to...

I'm fleshing out -- over the past few days -- my theology of homosexuality.   Now, granted, if I want to avoid problems, I probably should simply shut up.  But, as I see it, this is a question of truth before it's a question of ethics.  So, here goes: 1.   Let it be said at once that the question of same-sex relationships and the church is a question of truth before it is a question of morality or discipline.  Is the church's interpretation of scripture true?  Is the church's traditional teaching true?  If they are not, then they have to go, otherwise the faith of the church becomes bad faith (Tillich).  As Milton said, "Custom without truth is but agedness of error".  One other thing in anticipation:  Jesus said that the truth will make us free (John 8.32); Flannery O’Connor added that "the truth will make you odd".  But before we say anything more, we must know what we are saying it about.  In most discussions on the i...

I had planned a really long blog today on the Bible and homosexuality.  I am, after all, thinking quite a bit lately about sexuality as a Christian theologian in light of a possible upcoming dialogue on homosexuality.   I had planned to point out all the ways in which the Bible has nothing  to say about modern homosexuality as a sin.  I had planned to talk about why "sin" isn't even a good biblical category for dealing with human sexuality.  I had planned to develop my notion of a "tragic" theology of sin, instead.  But all that will have to wait for another day.  Instead, this morning, I've been thinking about what consequences Jesus has for thinking about sex.  I don't mean what Jesus says  about sex (shocking as what he actually  says may be).  No, I mean thinking about who Jesus is , what he reveals  about being human, may mean for thinking Christianly about sex.  First, let's be honest.  Sex -- whether homosexual...

I was asked recently to participate in a panel discussion on homosexuality.  So in an effort to put together some thoughts, here are a few scribbles that form the beginnings of notes for that presentation.  1.  To talk about "homosexuality", we first need to get "sexuality" right.   A.  Galatians 3.28:   Baptism , not gender (and certainly not genitalia), is the starting point for reflecting on sexuality.  Our identity "in Christ" comes first.  B.   Sin -- no matter of what variety -- is only experienced as tragedy  before grace.  Grace precedes judgment; grace precedes sin (Romans 5.1-11).  As baptism cleanses us from sin, we -- all of us , all  of us -- are transformed from isolation and loneliness to friends with God and with one another (Romans 5.12-21, 6.1-11; cf Jn 15.15). C.  Intimacy and friendship lie at our core.  Sexuality, for Christians, is an expression of that friendship with God and one another (...

As a little boy there was a song I loved to sing.  I learned it from my great-grandmother.  She taught it to me and I sang it, and all my life it has replayed inside my mind. Into my heart, into my heart, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus; Come in today, come in to stay, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. It was (or so I thought in those days) a song about conversion, about getting saved, being born again.  A kind of children's version of the Sinner's Prayer.  At church (especially Vacation Bible School) they were warning us to make sure we'd invited Jesus into our hearts.  This song only reinforced that message.  It  seemed a pretty grand thing, to have Jesus living in your heart.  And we always felt sorry for the poor non-Christians, those people who went about like walking ghost towns, their interior houses empty and abandoned.  Our most fervent wish was that they too might one day invite Jesus into their hearts.   It's a good thing, I supp...

Several years ago, I wrote an article on the theology of marriage, sex and family (it can be found via a tabbed link on the blog front page).  A friend asked me to revisit those 9.5 theses and articulate them in the way I'd formulate them now.   I've been thinking and writing about the theology of marriage and sex for so long, that obviously my ideas should blossom and grow.  This is an accounting of any growth.  1.   Marriage is Christological before it is "natural" .  Marriage, Edward Schillebeeckx writes, is "reality secular by origin"; yet, as he continues, it "has acquired a deeper  meaning in the order of salvation in which we live".  Because creation is in and for Christ, and because the apocalyptic shockwaves of the resurrection of Christ radiate both backwards and forwards, marriage must finally be understood Christologically.  Although Jesus relativised marriage (e.g. Luke 18.29/Matthew 19.12), and although in the consummation there...

Justified violence is the name of the game.  It seems to be how our world envisions itself.  Whether it's gangsters in the movies or justifications by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we thrive on the moral ambiguities of violence that seems necessary, even as we're concerned about limiting that violence.  Kendra and I began watching the Showtime television drama Dexter  last night.  In it,  Dexter is a serial killer who justifies his killings because he only preys on those he deems to be morally corrupt, such as sexual predators and others who prey on the weak.  I've yet to hear Christianity invoked as Dexter's justification, but I can see it coming.  It's roots have been laid, even as early as this first episode.  Why do we do that?  What makes the Crusades, or violence against gays, or African-Americans, or Muslims, or pretty much anyone different from us, a possibility, grounding as we do those violences in Jesus? Some even make this appli...

Some years ago (more than I care to count, really), I read Tex Sample's book, White Soul:  Country Music, the Church and Americans , in which he laid out a theology and spirituality of lament for the poor that is country music.  That book had a deep impact on my theological thinking about country music.  I must admit that I've only ever really listened to "classical" country -- dating from before about the mid 80s.  But one of the significant voices from that era who's had a lasting impact on my theology has been Johnny Cash. Cash got his big break in 1954 when he walked into Sam Phillips's Sun Records in Memphis, TN.  Phillips was just starting out and his big client at the time was the young Elvis Presley.  Cash would eventually be the second great star of Sun Records, followed by the signings of Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison, helping Sam Phillips carve out and shape the sound of early Rock 'N Roll. " I Walk the Line " was one of Johnny Ca...

1.  Some years ago, among the examinations of postulants for ordination, I interviewed a young lady, a seminary graduate (!) who confessed doubts about the resurrection of Jesus.  When I pressed her -- But what'll you preach on Easter Sunday? for starters -- she admitted that "resurrection" is a theological category that doesn't make sense.  It isn't "logical".  And I have to admit, on one level I agree.  Me issuing forth theological musings about the resurrection will have every Christian poet rolling over in their graves.  The mysterious demands open mouthed, gaping astonishment, then doxology, then  theo logic.  Forgive me, great poets, where I trespass here.  2.  The best apologetic for the resurrection is Law & Order  or Perry Mason .  The gospel authors invite gospel witnesses to take a public stand,  elicit their testimonies, cross-examine them, explain away any inconsistencies or contradictions, dismiss the cou...