Published in Relevant Magazine (Online)

Yesterday, Relevant Magazine’s weekly online edition published an article that I wrote. It’s title, on the webpage, is “The Bible’s Unanswered Questions,” though it ought to be titled “Questions that Linger” because the argument is about more than just the Bible. No matter, read and leave a comment if it strikes your interest!

Here’s the link.

A scathing–and extremely insightful–review of Driscoll’s new book on marriage and gender

Rachel Held Evans has posted a very insightful review of Mark Driscoll’s latest book–a book that has, unfortunately, been topping best seller lists since its release. Driscoll, if you don’t know, has caused quite a stir with his obnoxious brand of machismo Christianity. If my research went into gender studies, I think his books would make for an interesting paper… His version of Jesus is basically a UFC fighter who will only drink his coffee black (none of those girly drinks!) and who repeatedly, insistently causes a stir with his homophobic, misogynistic, and archaic banter about sexuality and gender.

One of Evans’s best arguments, though, has less to do with Driscoll or his latest travesty, and more to do with a persistent problem across modern-day Christendom. We put way too much trust in institutional church authority. As Evans puts it (my paraphrase), “Why are millions of people who buy this book trusting this pastor guy to be an effective marriage counselor and / or sex therapist? Aren’t there people who are actually trained to do that sort of thing?” A good read if you have a couple extra minutes.

Here’s the link.

Michael Gungor on Creativity and “Christian Music”

Michael Gungor recently posted an extremely insightful analysis of the Christian music industry. I’m passing the link along here. Very thoughtful, and very, very true.

To whet your appetite, here’s a piece of the article I found especially interesting:

I had a conversation with John Mark McMillan last night about something that I think is very interesting…he mentioned to me how strange it is that people keep calling his new album “creative.” That word is actually one of the most used words when people describe our music as well. In fact, I bet some of you reading this have described as such. Here’s the weird thing about this…
Why do you find it necessary to say that?

Do you notice that nobody really uses that word about other types of music? I just was perusing some Itunes user reviews to see if this holds up. I checked John Mark and mine, and “creativity” is very often found. But it’s not often found in reviews of bands like Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens or other artists who are certainly very “creative.”

Nobody goes to an art gallery and says, “boy, that painting is so creative.” Why? Because it’s art! Of course it’s creative! Why else would it be there? It’s very nature is creativity. Or like Lisa pointed out to me today, “that would be like saying, I love your house, it’s so architectural.”

But when someone in the Christian industry actually takes their art seriously, everybody is like “holy crap, listen to how creative it is!”

 

TLC, Muslims, and the Melting Pot

I just thought I’d pass along an interesting op-ed I came across on CNN’s website. Aman Ali (a Muslim writer and comedian) offers his perspective on a new tv show, airing on TLC, called “All American Muslim.” While the motive for such a show appears to be one of amicable bridge-building, it appears to do so in a manner that, like so many other exploitative cultural representations of “the Other,” does not embrace or honor difference but, rather, merely assimilates a marginalized identity into the expectations of the majority culture. It looks as though the “All American” here stands as the primary source of meaning, while the “Muslim” is merely offered as a footnote, suggesting that people who practice a minority faith must subscribe first to the dominant ideology before they can add their own affiliations. Certainly, I will take this over Fox News’s “Ground Zero Mosque!!!11!1!” witch hunts any day. But I still think that we, as a culture and a community, could be a bit more authentic and compassionate in the way we treat each other.

Here’s a link to the article.

Jim Wallis on “Occupy Wall Street”

Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners and the author of a number of important books on the relationship between Christian living and political policy, has posted an “open letter” on his blog, addressed to the Wall Street protest movement. It’s an eloquent endorsement–with a strong, necessary caveat–of the issues and concerns that the protesters are bringing to the forefront of the American consciousness. I think he really gets it right here, and regardless of your political persuasions or your feelings about these protests, I think you would find it a worthwhile and interesting read.

Here’s the link.

Harvey Cox on the Theology of the Market

This is an older article (1999) from The Atlantic. Harvey Cox is a divinity professor at Harvard University, and he offers an insightful critique of what Brian McLaren (in Everything Must Change) refers to as “Theo-Capitalism,” the nearly religious level of devotion and even mysticism expressed toward the market. The parallels he draws between theological language and popular discourse are eerie. Granted, this article is a bit polemical. It does come across as a bit of a rant. Nevertheless, much of what he exposes in market ideology is right on point, and its conclusion–reconfiguring Nietzsche’s famous “God is dead” to  the deity of The Market–is disarmingly uncanny in light of the market turbulence of the past few years.

Click here for the article.

Hilarious