Offensiveness of the Gospel

At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the New Testament in most cases—or at least not in the way we think. I love this quote from Rachel Held Evans: “I’m beginning to wonder if what makes the Gospel offensive is not who it keeps out, but who it lets in.”

The gospel is offensive to the proud and the powerful, especially the religiously proud and powerful. If you look through the New Testament, the vast majority of persecution comes not from the pagan gentiles but rather from Continue reading →

Hell?

Another topic of discussion lately has been hell. For conservative evangelicals at least if not for most Protestants, the only view even ever presented is that there is a “heaven” and a “hell” and that after death every person ends up in one of those for all eternity. It doesn’t take even a very careful reading of the Bible to realize this view doesn’t fit too well with scripture. As I understand it, our view of “heaven” and “hell” come more from medieval times and Dante’s “Inferno” than from the Bible. So I want to do a quick overview to clarify matters (or at least start you in the right direction).

Heaven and Hell in the Bible

In the bible, it seems that there are four to five places or states which we confusingly include under Continue reading →

It’s not Modesty nor Clothing but Sexuality and Sexism

Modesty has been a recent subject of discussion in the blogosphere and elsewhere. In the past I have noticed when it seemed like girls were or were not being modest, but I had never given the topic much thought until it was brought up at the Sacred Friendship Gathering a couple of months ago. I’ve learned that it’s a complicated subject. So I’ve been trying to work through my thoughts on the topic (as I do here on my blog).

Modesty Misused

In recent history in our culture, modesty has most often been discussed in terms of what a woman wears and how what she wears might attract men sexually through her body.¹ But there are three or more separate subjects mixed up in this view: clothing, modesty, sexuality, and our embodied nature. So in Continue reading →

Creepy Guys

As a guy, I feel that one of the worse things I could be called is creepy. I interpret it to mean, “stay as far away from this guy as possible”. Being that I like women (as people—I’m not just talking about sexual attraction here), I don’t want them to be intentionally distancing themselves from me. So I found the discussion which Hugo Schwyzer hosted on his Facebook wall interesting yesterday. He asked “What are the defining qualities of a ‘creepy guy?’ And, what do you think is the true opposite of creepiness?”

I want to try and sum up the discussion as best as I can in my own words. At its core, a woman labels a guy creepy when she feels uncomfortable around him. However she may or may not be able to explain why she feels this way. Continue reading →

Leading On

Ladies I get it. You don’t want to lead guys on. That’s good. I understand what you are really trying to get away from is those guys who just don’t seem to “get it” and won’t go away or leave you alone. I also understand you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s good too. However, I’d like to argue that these things aren’t under your control in many cases. In other words, it’s not you. Have you ever tried everything you can think of to let a guy know you’re not interested but he still won’t leave you alone? It’s not you, it’s him. He likes you because of who he perceives you to be, not just because he is interpreting your friendliness as attraction. So even if you do communicate your not attracted to him, that doesn’t necessarily Continue reading →

Sexuality

It seems like there’s been a lot of talk about sexuality lately, or perhaps I’ve just happened to run across it more because of the people I follow. But in any case, this is one of several different things which has gotten me thinking about the subject lately. And I’m not talking about sexual orientation, though that would be included under the umbrella of sexuality. Some of the topics include: how sexuality is much broader than just sex, gender and gender roles, relationships both romantic and platonic, misogyny, modesty, shame, attraction, desirability, etc.

I’m recognizing that I’m not sure that I have completely settled on a paradigm of sexuality, or at least I’m rethinking it. Actually, I think it has a significant amount to do Continue reading →

Sabbathing

Recently I’ve been thinking more about the idea of the Sabbath—taking a break from work one day a week. This is not a new concept; I’ve read or heard a number of people talk about the value of the Sabbath and the idea of resting from work. But for most of my life, I haven’t been busy enough to really feel like I needed a break. That’s changed this past year. My schedule is filled to the effective limit (meaning I still have some free time but it’s just the minimal amount I need). This past April was especially busy and stressful. So in May I found myself feeling the need for rest. I’m pretty busy through the week so I have generally not been planning much on the weekends. Saturday is my day to catch up on things like laundry. But I’m Continue reading →

Understanding the Challenge of Non-Jews Becoming Christian

As I recently wrote about, it the earliest major controversy in Christianity was whether or not one had to become culturally Jewish in order to becoming a part of the community of Christ followers. I tried to come up with a metaphor which might better explain the situation they were in. The best I could think of is this: it would be like someone going around the world and telling people “You can become Americans with all of the benefits and protections that American citizens enjoy. This will be yours if you simply believe.” While this doesn’t have the same impact in our culture, you can still imagine the response from some people: “Well, they can become American citizens if they learn English, pledge allegiance to the flag, pass an Continue reading →

Openness, Vulnerability, Etc.

At Bold Boundaries, I was a part of a brief conversation about openness in writing. It seems that the most open writing (typically spoken of as the most honest) is the best writing, or that which readers connect with and appreciate most. This also seems true in relationships; the best and closest relationships are those in which we are the most open and honest. The challenge is that being open and sharing leaves us vulnerable. And not everyone out there is safe. There are many people who will, for various reasons, criticize and judge us for what we share. They may or may not have harmful motives, but their reactions can wound us nonetheless.

Bold Boundaries sparked a desire in me to potentially share more openly. I’ve been thinking Continue reading →

Can Non-Jews Be Christians?

The first major controversy in Christianity was whether or not non-Jews could become Christians. We read about this in Acts 15 and Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian churches in response to this. I haven’t felt that I completely grasped this controversy in the past. There is a focus on following the Mosaic Law, and it has typically been framed (in Protestantism at least) as “salvation by works”. In other words, Christian leaders have taught that some Jews were arguing that salvation came through action—doing “good” as spelled out in the Law. In this view, Paul contrasts their claims by arguing that salvation comes through faith alone. (Hmmmm… that sounds very Protestant.)

But if this is true, why is the major, almost Continue reading →