Pastors, remember the size of something doesn’t determine the value of the thing.

Peter told the first century Christians to counteract the evil of the Emperor with everyday ordinary acts of love.

Elves protected the trees. Orcs tore them down.

I’m ashamed to be an American.

Grateful for you.

Go birds!

You know what really bugs me? When Christians emphasis what Paul said over what Jesus said. Paul was trying to make sense of what Jesus said in light of years of Jewish thought and a Gentile audience. Paul doesn’t trump Jesus! Jesus wasn’t teaching under the “old covenant”.

My kickstarter came a week ago and I haven’t played it even once.

I find myself as a political moderate registered independent shaking my head at the right. The harder they dig in the bigger the pendulum swing will be once they are gone. Every win you think you are getting you’re only radicalizing people to the far left.

This seems timely.

There are two extremes right now. The one side won’t say anything Trump does is wrong because they don’t want to be wrong for voting for him and the other side says everything he does is an existential threat. Both sides are refusing to be reasonable.

Every time I see Keith David in a serious role I’m like this show just jumped the shark. High Potential had him as the hard nose police chief and I’m like that’s Elroy Patashnik.

Why do I kickstart stuff. I hate this wait. Mine always feels like the last one of fulfillment to ship. I always say never again and then I do it again.

Growing up in church in the 90s, I was told the great battle of my life would be Christianity vs atheism, but the actual battle is between a populist Christianity that is shallow and intellectually illiterate and a traditionally robust discipleship to Jesus that calls me to love my neighbor.

When Christianity marries power we tend to get the weakest form of Christianity and the most oppressive form of empire.

Okay some of you who are constantly like “people hate me because I love Jesus and talk about Jesus” — people hate some of you because you need therapy. What makes you obnoxious is not the gospel, it is your unwillingness to deal with your shadow side.

Every pastor needs this painted on a wall.

I was excited for fantastic four but the Superman trailer was better.

Our parents generation thought that having kids would heal their brokenness but having kids only amplified their brokenness .

Go birds!!!

If you have to go to the Old Testament to find a war-like passage to give your violent rhetoric religious weight, and pass over the clear teaching of Jesus about empathy and mercy, you are using scripture like the Satan did in the desert temptation of Christ.

Grace means love isn’t transactional. Penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) implies it is transactional grace isn’t right or PSA isn’t right. I’m siding with grace.

Showing grace to the victim means bringing justice to the abuser.

Christian nationalism takes the name of the Lord in vain. It’s a diabolical attempt to highjack the name of the Lord to serve the selfish interests of a particular nation or empire over and against the interests of other nations and the universal (catholic) kingdom of Christ.

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” -Zora Neale Hurston

Ok

When we are devalued we don’t want to bring value to the organization that devalued us.

The weaker and needier we feel, the more dangerous we are in our use of power because we are far more likely to use the vulnerable to feed ourselves. Compelled by their own anxieties, fears, and weaknesses, leaders often abuse the power they have been entrusted with.

I grew up in churches that said you must believe without a “shadow of doubt” for it to be legitimate, but every belief has doubt sometimes a shadow and sometimes a dark storm.

Belief is one of the most powerful organic forces in the multiverse. It may not be able to move mountains, exactly.
People get exactly the wrong idea about belief. They think it works back to front. They think the sequence is, first object, then belief. In fact, it works the other way. -T. Pratchett