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Before They Fly

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I had lunch with fellow interpreters and delegates from the UMC General Conference (official meeting of the United Methodist Church, akin to a regular constitutional congress). We were speaking of transportation in various parts, and a question was raised about transportation in Mozambique. An interpreter from there began addressing the difficulty of transportation anywhere outside of the cities. When Mozambique gained independence in 1975, war for independence led to a civil war. As a child in this war, this interpreter saw 6 of his brothers gunned down. As many others, they fled their rural home and headed to the relative safety of the cities, for survival. The cities offered a hope for jobs, a hope for survival. Soon, returning home to their rural subsistence farms was impossible due to a proliferation of land mines. What once gave life now promised death. War. How can we talk about the glories of war when we pause even a moment to consider just how destructive wa
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Performative Prayer:

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[Comments to Monroe, NC City Council, 09 April 2024] As clergy, prayer is important to me. Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus modeled prayer. Jesus also talked about performative prayer, prayer wielded as a public promotion of one’s piety. He said that kind of prayer short-circuits prayer’s validity. Rather than directed to God, it is directed only to a human audience. He did not mean all public prayer is performative. He warned us of praying to be seen, praised, applauded. Jesus prayed in private. Jesus prayed when performing miracles. Jesus prayed with and for his disciples. He invited them into his dialogue with the Father. He deemed prayer conversation with God, taking multiple forms in diverse settings. Jesus’ other public prayers were from the cross. Those were communication with God inviting people to bear witness to that communication for their benefit. Before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and Herod, Jesus does not pray. He never coerces his understanding of God u
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Christianity and Politics:

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I’ve been hearing ramblings that being a Christian means voting Republican. Some have stated, “If you vote for a Democrat, you can’t be a Christian.” That is bunk. It is an outright lie with no basis in Christianity at all. Even so, I’ve heard multiple reports of pastors saying things along this line, as well as a national political figure making such a statement in a church sanctuary. Jesus does not play partisan politics. In the history of political parties, there has never been one that stood for Jesus’ priorities. Jesus himself never dipped his feet into politics. He actually refused to become a military or political leader. That was one of the temptations he faced as recorded in Matthew’s gospel. Telling people there is only one party that stands for the principles of Christianity brushes over numerous issues on which political parties are divided or united in contrast to Jesus’ values. It might make for a great campaign sticker, but it is as worthless as the grime we w
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God in the Hands of Angry Sinners

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Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” set a very poor direction for much of Christianity in the Colonies. His Puritan tradition presented God as an essentially angry deity whose desire was to condemn and torture. Grace or mercy existed simply in regard to how long God waited until calling down judgment upon sinners. That is not good news. It never was. Such is not the message of Jesus whom the gospel writers claim as good news. They echo the words of the celestial messengers declaring Jesus’ birth as good news of great joy to all peoples. Rather than look to Jesus as the clearest example of God’s identity, character, and will, that tradition surrounding Edwards began with an altogether different understanding that could not account for what Jesus actually taught. The Puritan perspective began with angry sinners and projected that upon God. Anger begins with fear, uncertainty, discomfort, and the inability to control one’s environment, ot
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Censorship, Coercion, and Losing the Argument

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My parents were SBC missionaries. They took me to Brazil, where I grew up under a military dictatorship. The military wanted to be the morality police. They imposed all sorts of laws to that end, but it did not effect any real change. Thousands of people were “disappeared,” silenced, exiled, left the country, or used coded speech to get around censorship laws. With the fall of the dictatorship, what had been repressed exploded from the shadows. Censorship does not change minds. Censorship does not address who people are. Censorship is not the way of Jesus. Jesus did not deal with coercion. He allowed people to walk away. When we resort to coercion, we are giving up on Jesus. It is our stating the way of Jesus is not enough. It says we don't trust him. It is like Peter pulling out a sword only to have Jesus call him down, telling him to put it away. The way of Jesus is love. It is setting an example. It is demonstrating a better wa
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The Gospel Is Not Conservative

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Fundamentalism and conservativism are intrinsically averse to change. They are tied with conserving a status quo or moving back to a former era. They seek a safe place, a respite from change and transformation in the world around them. They are threatened by new ideas. They fear that the foundations on which they base their lives will be uprooted, causing their view of reality to fall apart. Growth depends on change. Life requires change. Survival depends on responding to changes in our environment. It requires new ideas. It requires new answers to old questions, as well as new questions with even newer answers. Jesus was by no means conservative. Jesus challenged the status quo. He fought against the groundwork of much of the religious thought around him, as well as the structures erected to empower its values. He called out those who benefited from social, religious, and political power. He demonstrated God's love, forgiveness and grace to those deemed una
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Redeeming the Cross

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I grew up under the shadow of crosses. They decorated churches, Bibles, necklaces, and were portrayed in hymns, sermons, and evangelistic meetings. None of that, however, really presents what I have come to understand as the meaning and significance of the cross in the New Testament writings. All those bronze, brass, iron, silver, gold, and wooden crosses have much more to do with how Constantine wielded the cross than anything written by Paul or spoken by Jesus. Constantine reported a vision in which he saw a cross of light and heard “in hoc signo vinces.” The vision was that under this sign (IHS), he should and would send out his conquering armies to victory. He was taking something referred to in Christianity and wielding it as a symbol of military might, of domination, of torture, of death, and of subjection and sending his troops to march under that sign of Rome’s Empire. The cross goes back to the Greeks, who used it for their enemies. The Romans took the cross
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