The Little Friar

Has anyone else ever noticed that trickery is rewarded  in Genesis?  I ask this question because I've recently been rereading the Abraham narratives.  And Abraham twice -- twice!  mind you -- passes off his wife Sarah as his sister.   He first does this with Pharaoh, and is reward handsomely for the deception (Genesis 12.16):  "Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels".  Later on Abraham does the same with Abimelek and, once again, makes out like a bandit (Genesis 20.14-15):  "Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him.  And Abimelek said, 'My land is before you; live wherever you like'".  Now, I don't recall whether this is something for which there is much scholarly literature.  My hunch is that Walter Brueggemann has already written about this and...

One of those hot-button issues in the American culture wars that's making its rounds on Facebook lately is the notion of marriage defined biblically as an act between one woman and one man.  (Of course, this is meant to deny "gay" marriage, but it also calls into question polygamy, polyamory and supports the general condemnation of pre-martial sex.)  I want to take up this complex of images in an effort to explore why  folks make this claim (the foundation) as well as an alternative claim.  Why do we marry?  For Christians, why is God so keen on marriage?  And even more specifically, why does God restrict sexual activity to marriage? I'd like to start addressing these questions by first discussing  the leash principle .  I believe the leash principle was first articulated by E.O. Wilson.  The basic idea is this:  1. Does culture have human nature on a leash?  Or, 2. Does human nature control culture? If it's 1, then we hav...

A Facebook exchange recently in which I argued that the economic vision of Jesus was a direct criticism of contemporary capitalism has spawned some thoughts I have on Jesus and political economies generally.  It's rather unambiguous from the four New Testament Gospel accounts that Jesus was viewed as a criminal.  He was  crucified.  So this claim seems rather banal.   Of course  Jesus was considered to be a criminal.  But I want to push back a bit and claim that he actually was  a criminal.  My problem is with the notion that most folks have that Jesus "was considered to be" one.  Lots of folks envision Jesus as innocent.  He was crucified as an innocent, and his crucifixion was a miscarriage  of justice.  But I disagree.  Jesus was -- really, truly -- a disturber of the peace and a political threat.  I say Jesus was, according to the testimony in the Gospels, a criminal.  He wasn't just...

I saw, for the first time this week, those camera-ready images that the Episcopal Church has produced for congregations to use on postcards, podcasts, and even billboards. And I wasn't happy. Now, to be sure, I support most efforts at evangelism.  What pastor wouldn't?  But there's a problem here. Let me take each ad in turn. "Summer sermons will be shorter.  Priests play golf too"?  I can't help but rephrasing this ad as, "Our preaching is such a waste of your time that in the summer, when your leisure time is more valuable, we'll waste less of it".  If our preaching isn't helping people live out their Christian lives in important ways, then we shouldn't be preaching.  If it is, let's advertise that: "Hear a message that will change your life before your Sunday morning tee time". Then, there's this one: "Why not surprise us and show up this Sunday"?  When I first saw it, this one shocked me m...

If you've taken Intro to Philosophy 101, you've heard of the ontological argument .  First, let me summarize: (1) God is the greatest being we can imagine. (2) To exist is greater than not to exist. (3) Therefore, God exists.  Forget, for the moment, that what this argument actually does is to  prove that God is the greatest being that we can imagine and that, if we imagined God, we have to imagine that God exists.  But imaging God's existence isn't proof that God does, in fact, exist.  To address this we'd have to add premises like "to exist in reality is greater than to exist in the mind".  Regardless, you get the basic idea. You may also remember the argument has lots of critics.  It's too simple.  It's too clean.  It's too cute.  Point in fact, I am  one of those folks who finds the argument unpersuasive.   Today, though, I want to focus on something else.  At its heart the ontological argument h...

After having watched and re-watched the Harry Potter movies more times than my Muggle brain can keep count, I was thinking a rather random thought this afternoon:  Which house would Jesus be sorted into?  Slytherin?  Gryffindor?  Hufflepuff?  Ravenclaw? Let's back up, for a second.  For those of you not in the know (I'm casting glances at all the Muggles who've refused to read the books or watch the movies for the occultism they allegedly promote), the Hogwarts students are sorted into their houses by the Sorting Hat based upon the personality match between the student and the House .  Gryffindor values courage and bravery.  Slytherin values ambition, cunning, and pure blood status.  Ravenclaw values intelligence and learning.  And Hufflepuff values ... Wait, what does Hufflepuff value?  In the movies, you're left to wonder. But, fear not!  There's a song that the Sorting Hat sings on one fine occasion that settles t...

My theology of ministry is finally finished, and available online (the draft that's here lacks a few specific details, but you get the fullest gist of what I've written over the past 24 hours).  Quite glad to have that out of the way.

Over the course of the past few days, I've been thinking about my own practice of posting on Facebook.  During breakfast a few days ago, the topic turned toward how one uses -- as a Christian -- Facebook. Let's face it:  Facebook is a social tool.  What we do with it, shows the deepest corners of our hearts, whether we admit it or not. I've only ever "blocked" someone from Facebook less than a handful of times.  Each time, it's been because this person was using their Facebook as a weapon (against me or against someone else).  I've never been sure why they thought it was appropriate:  Saying and doing things that amount to a sort of bullying.  It's possible, I suppose, they just disliked me or wanted to humiliate me publicly.  I always assume the former.  Because there are real life consequences to unfriending and blocking someone. But, for lots of folks, Facebook is a social weapon .  They used status updates to tell folks ab...

I lamented at a family gathering the other day the news that there's now to be a reality show on Snake-Handling Churches in Appalachia.  It's a phenomenon the largest percentage of us in Appalachia consider to backward, and therefore we find it continuing the various stereotypes of those of us in the region.  (Let's bracket the various ways in which that does take place for another day.) Today, though, I want to back away from that initial fear a bit.  After thinking this through, I'm not so sure the snake-handlers are theologically naive.  In fact, I now think I have a lot in common with them.  I've posted the rest beneath the fold (it gets rather long), but with a little patience, let me lay out why I think they're headed in the right direction.

Stan Hauerwas on what it means to be a Christian: This speaks for itself.

I've written recently about how I admire the course Pope Francis has been charting for his papacy.  Today, I want to revisit a sermon he delivered last May. The gospel reading for the day was this text from Mark 9: John said to him, "Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him." But Jesus said, "You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us".  As shared by Vatican Radio , the Pope began his homily by noting that the disciples raise the complaint, "If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good".  And yet, Francis summarized, Jesus corrects his followers:  "Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good". Francis described the disciples as "a little intolerant" in that they believe that "thos...

I've spent a good deal of my life dealing with the notion of "mental illness".  It's not a secret that I'm on the Autism Spectrum.  That diagnosis alone comes with a host of attendant diagnoses of various additional disorders.  So I'm not one to downplay any particular diagnosis.  I know the suffering involved. That said, I'm struck by how often a diagnosis becomes a socially controlling thing in our lives. Enter Thomas Szasz . For those of you unfamiliar with Szasz's work, Thomas Szasz was the radical and iconoclastic psychiatrist who spent most of his life attacking the profession of psychiatry by arguing that "mental illness" didn't exist.  Rather, Szasz argued, "mental illness" was a social construct created so that society could use it as a form of social control via the medical and legal professions.  According to Szasz, mental illness was a myth as he wrote in his famous book The Myth of Mental Illness , pub...

Occasionally, I come across things that demand -- based on their sheer truthfulness -- to be read by everyone.  This address is one of those must-reads.. It is author George Saunders' convocation speech at Syracuse University for the class of 2013.  (For those who aren't inclined to read the address, you can see it here .)  I won't abstract the speech here.  There are too many wonderful lines and it needs to be read in its entirely.  It's a profound meditation on many of the themes that have preoccupied me and my writing here.  The centrality of kindness.  That sin in the form of selfishness and self-absorption is deeply ingrained.  And that because of this, kindness is very, very hard.  And how immersion in a spiritual tradition can help with this struggle. A recent NY Times profile of Saunders and his new book Tenth of December can be read here .  In that profile, Saunders is asked to reflect on the spiritual and redemptive aspe...

I've maintained for some time that the contemporary milieu of Western Christianity -- particularly in dividing up into "conversative" and "liberal" -- is really just a whole cloth.  That is, "conservative" and "liberal" are flip sides of the same coin.  In order to demonstrate how that's true, I thought it might be a helpful exercise to re-write the traditional Apostles' Creed from the perspective of each.  Look for the similarities and differences.  They're quite telling. In this corner, the "conservative" creed rendition: I believe in God the Father All-macho-mighty, patriarch and misogynist, Steroidal Spirit, intelligent-designer and micro-manager of heaven and earth. Awesome! I believe in Jesus, Jesus, sweet Jesus Christ, God's only Son, the friendly gh my personal Lord and Savior, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary (and anyone who questions the literal facticity of th...

Very rarely do we think to introduce theologians based upon contemporary music.  What follows below is a selection of those theologians who've been most influential upon my own thinking, and the theme songs I think would best represent their work.* Cyprian of Carthage:  " Oh Mama " Irenaeus:  " Long Road Out of Eden " Origen:  " The First Cut Is the Deepest " Pelagius:  " The Fall of the World's Own Optimist " St Augustine:  " Tortured, Tangled Hearts " Isaac the Syrian:  " Friend of the Devil " St Francis of Assisi:  " Ain't Too Proud to Beg " Anselm:  " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction " St Thomas Aquinas:  " The Logical Song " Thomas More:  " Chelsea Morning " Martin Luther:  " Faith " Ignatius of Loyola:  " Soldier Boy " John Calvin:  " Show Some Emotion " John of the Cross:  " One of These Nights " John Wesley:  ...

Over the past few hours, I've been transferring older sermons to a digital format.  Here is a brief selection from out of the past: "No Small Matter" ( Psalm 51 , Matthew 18.15-22 ), Part 1 & Part 2 (also with Eucharist) " Upside Down Christmas " ( Matthew 1.18-25 ) "You Call This a Church" ( John 20.19-31 ), Part 1 & Part 2 (from a pulpit swap with a United Methodist congregation) " The Fish Story " ( John 21:1-14 ) "Cucumbers & the Kingdom" ( John 15.1-11 ), Part 1 & Part 2

More often than not, I sound like a fundamentalist when I'm talking (or writing) about the Bible.  That's because, when you read the Bible with the damned , you find yourself drawn to words like sin , brokenness , and the mercy of God .  It still always comes down to sin and mercy for me .  I've lamented recently about how academics (like me!) tend to rely so heavily on theorists to get our message out -- about how Lacan, Derrida, Wittgenstein, Hegel, and Nietzsche are great for theorists, but lousy for the pastoral need to get folks to read and understand the Bible.  If you're aiming for folks to follow Jesus, it's better to talk Jesus than to talk Lyotard.  I've been watching Pope Francis since his installation, and I have a confession to make:  I like what I see.  I hope he continues on the course he seems to be charting for his papacy.  (Not, of course, that it's a departure from previous Popes, but that he's far more radical -- in the ...

I posted a few days ago some of my reasons for disillusionment in modern American Liberalism.  That reference to labor may have struck some of you as odd or out of the blue.  It came to my mind because I've been reading a lot lately about the labor movement.  Why? Some of my reasons are summarized in this article by Henry Blodget in the Business Insider , "I've Always Hated The Idea Of Labor Unions, But It May Be Time To Reconsider". After noting many of the (very legitimate) problems with labor unions, Blodget brings to our attention a few trends, trends that I'm pretty concerned about. First, income disparity -- the separation between the proverbial 99% and the 1% -- is the greatest it has been in America since the Great Depression.  ( To explore more about these trends you can examine these charts in a separate article by Blodget. ) Second, corporate profits are at an all time high. Third, wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-tim...

Occasionally, I bump into folks who believe that God is masculine.  That the heart of divinity is male. I'm always tempted to remind them of the notion from Gregory Nazianzen , that "God is beyond our notions of Gender".  But, if you're being so literal with "Father" language, resorting to a Church Father in making an argument probably won't go very far. I'm nevertheless struck by how odd it is for folks to be making these arguments.  Among the most "famous" of arguments lately among Evangelicals has been that of John Piper's "masculine Christianity" : ... the fullest flourishing of women and men takes place in churches and families where Christianity has this God-ordained, masculine feel.  For the sake of the glory of women, and for the sake of the security and joy of children, God has made Christianity to have a masculine feel.  He has ordained for the church a masculine ministry. It is, of course, the same arg...